Police officers that tortured and killed detainee - what will the AG and the Malaysian government do?
and the relevant Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission report
Press Release | Unabated Deaths in Custody Demonstrate that Police Cannot Police Themselves
Saturday, 07 November 2015 05:00pm
The
Malaysian Bar notes that the Inspector General of Police (“IGP”), Tan
Sri Dato’ Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, has reportedly pledged that any police
personnel involved in the death in custody of Syed Mohd Azlan Syed
Mohamed Nur would be brought to justice.
It
is shocking that individuals continue to die in such highly suspicious
circumstances while under the care of the police. The report recently
released by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission is a severe
indictment of the management and protection of detainees being held in
custody. It points to a deeply entrenched and systemic problem within
the police force that defies resolution.
The
Malaysian Bar is concerned that the IGP’s announcement may be a mere
platitude, as deaths in custody have continued unabated, despite the
news in May 2013 that the IGP would head a special committee established
to take measures to prevent deaths in police lockups.
In
the wake of the death in police custody of N Dhamendran at that time,
the Minister of Home Affairs Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had
reportedly proposed that closed-circuit surveillance cameras (“CCTVs”)
be installed in all holding cells in police lock-ups, and that detainees
should be held in centralised holding centres instead of police
lock-ups, with adequate monitoring and CCTV coverage. He had also
announced that the standard operating procedures for police
interrogations would be re-evaluated. A year later, the Minister
announced in May 2014 that CCTVs would be installed in all police
lock-ups, as only one police station lock-up had a CCTV then.
The
Malaysian Bar calls upon the IGP and the Minister to now provide a
comprehensive account of the steps that have been taken in the
intervening 17 months, and to account for the failure of the measures
intended to eradicate the occurrence of deaths in custody.
Death in custody, especially by foul
means or under dubious conditions, is among the most heinous crimes
imaginable in a civilised society under the rule of law. The present
state of affairs has led to much public outrage and an erosion of
confidence in the police. The police must be proactive in ensuring that
the wrongful actions of some amongst them do not tarnish the standing
of the whole force. Unless this is addressed, the police force will
unfortunately remain a diminished institution in the eyes of the
public.
Such
tragedies reinforce the Malaysian Bar’s repeated calls for the
Government to implement the recommendation of the Royal Commission to
Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police, in
its report published in May 2005, for the setting up of an Independent
Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (“IPCMC”) to function as an
independent and external oversight body to investigate complaints about
police personnel and to make the police accountable for their conduct.
The
Malaysian Bar calls on the IGP to take concrete and immediate action,
as this is a matter of utmost public interest that warrants the highest
level of priority. Public confidence can only be restored, and justice
seen to be done, if swift action is taken to ensure that the
perpetrators are brought to book and prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law.
We
also call on all government authorities to further strengthen the
standard operating procedures in every circumstance of detention and
custody, to ensure the safety and welfare of detainees.
Every
death in custody is inexcusable, and Syed Mohd Azlan Syed Mohamed Nur’s
demise is another death in custody that demonstrates that the police
are unable to police themselves.
Steven Thiru
President
Malaysian Bar
7 November 2015
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