Police video footage on Mat Sabu backfires

Far from proving that the police had nothing to do with the injury suffered by PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu on July 9, a video footage shown to members of the press yesterday showed how his motorcycle was rudely cornered by a police 4WD vehicle causing him to hit another police vehicle behind him and fall to the ground.

Salleh Mat Rashid, who was recently promoted to head the Internal Security and Public Order, dedicated a whole topic during the police presentation to rebut Mat Sabu's claim that police caused his injury which required a surgery on a torn ligament last week.

Backed by a 4WD vehicle and two Proton Waja patrol cars, the police tailed the PAS leader through major roads in the city in a bid to arrest him. During the briefing, Salleh however did not specify why the three police vehicles had wanted to arrest Mat Sabu.

Giving the police version of the incident, Salleh said the police started its pursuit of Mat Sabu, riding pillion in a motorbike accompanied by two other persons on a different bike, at Jalan Maharajalela, before moving towards Jalan Sultan Sulaiman, Jalan Syed Putra, all the way through Jalan Robson and into Jalan Tun Sambanthan.

From here, Mat Sabu kept going towards Jalan Travers to turn into the Mahameru highway. However, a police block there forced him to take a turn into the Sri Bukit Persekutuan residential area.

The 4WD then overtook Mat Sabu's motorbike and made a sharp left turn in a bid to stop his advance. Sandwiched between the back of the 4WD and the police car, Mat Sabu's motorbike fell to the ground, which the police claimed was due to a sudden U-turn it made to escape. The police also admitted that the motorbike did hit one police car at its front fender.

There was however no video footage to exactly show how the motorcycle had fallen due to the 4WD blocking its vision, other than a computer animation to re-enact the police version.

Concluding its explanation, the police said Mat Sabu had not suffered any fracture but only "soft tissue injury to right knee".

Mat Sabu, who earlier said he was taken by police to a clinic in Jinjang following his arrest, had since sought further treatment at the Selangor Medical Centre in Shah Alam, confirming that his injury was worse than previously thought. The hospital carried out a procedure drilling a 2.5-inch screw into the back of his knee to keep it in place.

While the police said it would take action against Mat Sabu for making "false claims", Sabu maintained that he would pursue legal action against the police.

Other than its explanation on the incident involving Mat Sabu, the police also denied its men had been violent in its clampdown on the massive Bersih rally in the capital, which saw more than 1,600 people arrested.

Among others, it said that its officers had acted with restraint and was "hospitable" to those detained, a claim in contrast with thousands of images and video footages which made their way into internet blogs and video-sharing sites hours after the rally ended.

On the Tung Shin hospital incident, the police admitted that tear gas and water canon had been fired near the hospital, but stopped short of explaining further citing "pending investigations".

Several doctors and surgeons had earlier condemned the police invasion of the Tung Shin and Chinese Maternity hospitals along Jalan Pudu, saying its action was in violation of the universal status of hospitals as safe sanctuaries.

"It is repulsive that the authorities entrusted with policing the nation and protecting the weak and needy, have shamelessly denied publicly, the occurrence of these incidents in spite of countless photos, videos and eye-witness accounts of what was evident to all independent observers," the doctors said in a statement.

- Harakahdaily