Jakarta – Lawyers for hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir on Wednesday filed a class action suit demanding the disbanding of the police's anti-terror unit, accusing it of rights violations.

Lawyers from the "Team for the Defence of Muslims", a group that has provided defence counsel for Bashir and several bombers in the past, filed the suit against the national police chief in the South Jakarta district court.

Munarman, one of the lawyers, told reporters that the class action suit was filed by Bashir for those who had been victims of arbitrary arrest by anti-terror unit Detachment 88.

The suit, copies of which were distributed by the lawyers, demanded that the court "declare the actions of the anti-terror unit Detachment 88 in violation of the laws... and as gross human rights violations." It called on the police chief to immediately disband the US and Australian-trained and funded squad.

In a press conference announcing the plan to file the suit on Tuesday, another lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said that the number of victims numbered around 500, about 300 of whom were released without trial and the remainder processed through the courts.

Munarman said that the squad's work also violated the constitution which forbids the use of torture to obtain confessions from suspects. The suit also alleges discrimination as the unit's actions were only directed at Muslims.

Bashir, 68, was released from jail in June last year after serving nearly 26 months for his role in a "sinister conspiracy" that led to the nightclub attacks in Bali in October 2002.

The Supreme Court in December 2006 overturned his conviction and cleared Bashir of involvement in the blasts which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Detachment 88, formed after that bombing, was named for the number of Australians killed.

Foreign governments say Bashir was the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional terrorist group blamed for the Bali blasts and numerous other deadly attacks, including on Jakarta's Marriott hotel and the city's Australian embassy.

The vast majority of Muslims in Indonesia, a nation of 232 million people, practice a very tolerant form of the religion and are highly critical of Bashir's position.