Why beat up Bersih people under probe?

Why show up at a police station, if you're going to get bashed up, Bersih asks.

KUALA LUMPUR: Why turn yourself in for police questioning if you’re going to risk getting beaten up?

This was a query raised by Bersih’s leaders after Mohd Safuan Mamat, 24, a Bersih supporter, was allegedly hit by police on Monday with a metal pipe.

Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah said: “He [Safuan] went to the police station on a voluntary basis, but was detained and beaten up.”

“What is the message the police are giving? You want the people to cooperate, and when they come, you beat them up,” she told reporters at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

FMT reported yesterday that Safuan went to the Dang Wangi police station on May 14 to give a statement over his involvement in the April 28 Bersih 3.0 rally.

After giving his statement, he was taken to the lock-up behind the station, handcuffed and detained for the night.

Safuan claimed that a police officer tried to get him to confess that he had smashed a police car during the disturbance.

He claimed that when he denied the allegation, the police officer beat him up with the metal pipe.

Abdullah asked what kind of message the police were trying to convey through this incident.

She also asked about the purported 100-plus list that the police had on Bersih participants involved in the chaos of the April 28 rally.

“If they know the people [involved], they should issue them a letter to ask them [from this list] to come to the police station instead of hunting them,” she said.

She said that nobody except the police seemed to know the identities of the 100-plus participants.

Meanwhile, Bersih leader Hishamuddin Rais said that the group had invited more than 100 people who were attacked by police on April 28 to talk about their experience at the Chinese Assembly Hall here at 11am this Saturday.