Human rights lawyer N Surendran may be a first-term Member of Parliament, sworn-in only days ago, but he is not wasting any time.
Surendran will be calling on Parliament to censure the Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, who was found liable by the Kuala Lumpur High Court a day ago of being responsible for the death of a 22-year-old suspect and trying to cover his "murder" by police interrogators.
"I will be raising the issues raised in yesterday's landmark court ruling during the King's speech today," Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.
The 46-year-old lawyer, who is a vice president of the People's Justice Party or PKR, also wants the government to launch a criminal investigation against Khalid.
"The government should institute disciplinary action against the IGP and there should be an investigation because cover-up is a criminal offense. There should be a criminal investigation into the death of Kugan," Surendran toldMalaysia Chronicle.
Opening the floodgates
He warned that Malaysian people would suffer the most if Prime Minister Najib Razak continued to ignore the plight of detainees who died in police custody, pointing to the monetary damages awarded to the family of Kugan Ananthan, who was remanded on suspicion of stealing cars.
Kugan died in the lockup 5 days after he was arrested and a second post-mortem demanded by his family showed he had died from severe torture and beatings by his interrogators.
"All the defendants are jointly liable but its seems highly like the policers will be able to pay it. Each and every defendant is jointly and severally liable for the judgement sum. In this case we will go for the government. It is the government that will end paying this sum much to the detriment of the public, if public funds are being wasted because of government misconduct and police misconduct," said the Padang Serai MP.
There have long-standing calls for the Umno-BN government to investigate and form an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission but to no avail. Many activists expect that the latest ruling will now exert another form of pressure on the government to get strict with recalcitrant cops, as the awarding of damages may open the floodgates to other similar civil lawsuits against the government and police.
Malaysia has one of the highest rates of deaths in police custody in the region. Officials report more than 160 such deaths since 2000, but activists say the figure is way higher. They point out that in May 2013 alone, there was an astonishing 3 suspicious deaths over a 11-day span.
Heed the court's advice
She named as 1st defendant Khalid, who was then the Selangor police chief and now the IGP; as 2nd defendant police officer Navindran Vivekanandan, who has been convicted of causing Kugan's death but is now out on bail pending an appeal; as 3rd defendant Zainal Rashid who has since passed away; as 4th defendant the Inspector General of Police; and as 5th defendant the government of Malaysia.
Justice VT Singham upheld her claims that Kugan had been wrongly imprisoned, and that the defendants had breached their duty of care to him. He further found that Kugan had been "murdered", the first validation from a court of the family's allegations whereas government prosecutors had only sought to to charge his killers for causing grievous hurt.
“Police lock-ups and police stations must be a safe place for every human being and should not be converted into a crime scene,” he said.
The judge also advised Prime Minister Najib Razak's government to not further delay establishing an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission, as was recommended by a Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2005.
"The recommendation of the royal commission of inquiry must not be kept in cold storage and allowed to freeze. It must be activated as soon as possible in order to assure all concerned members of society, including family members of deceased persons, that an independent agency is looking into the matter without any influence from the local police officers," Singham said
Malaysia Chronicle
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