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SINGAPORE police on Saturday arrested 10 people for holding a rally without a permit to protest against rising living costs, witnesses said.
Leading pro-democracy activist Chee Soon Juan was among the group who were bundled into police vans after plainclothes officers stopped them in front of a shopping mall in the business district, an AFP reporter and photographer said.
Chee is the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party, one of a handful of opposition parties in the city-state, which has been ruled by the People's Action Party since 1959.
About 18 protesters, including children, had earlier gathered outside parliament where they symbolically laid groceries on a sidewalk.
The police then stopped them just minutes after setting off for the Orchard Road shopping area, where they had planned another protest.
They wore red t-shirts with the words 'we cannot take it anymore' while others carried placards denouncing rising prices.
The 10 were arrested after ignoring police calls to disperse and lay down their placards, the witnesses said. Chee's activist sister was also apprehended.
Singapore, scarred by racial riots in the 1960s, has strict laws against public assembly, which require a police permit for a gathering of five or more people. -- AFP
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