Human rights group Amnesty International Malaysia has lambasted the police decision to probe news articles on the death of detainee A Ganapathy and asked that if the police were the alleged masterminds behind his death, then why were they the ones investigating the matter.
"Ganapathy has died. His family says he was beaten while under police custody.
"Reporting on the case, talking about the case, demanding a transparent investigation, asking for #JusticeForGanapathy is not disrupting 'public peace'.
"Violence and injustice is the disruption of peace. Ganapathy's family has a right to know what happened. They need to get justice," said Amnesty on Twitter.
"Investigations need to be done openly and transparently. But if the police are the alleged masterminds (of the incident), who is investigating the police?
“The media should be allowed to report on this matter. People have a right to know, ”said the human rights group today.
The statement was made a day after Malaysiakini reported that the police took statements from the news portal's reporters regarding three articles published.
It is understood that the case is being investigated under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code for causing public treason with the intention of causing fear to the public.
Malaysiakini understands that a police report was lodged by an investigating officer who is handling the investigation into Ganapathy's death.
Critics harassed
The three articles concerned suspicions over the demise of Ganapathy, 40 (above), who died while being treated at the hospital after being arrested by the police in February.
The articles were titled "Lawyer: Post-mortem shows Ganapathy died of severe injuries to leg, shoulder", "MIC demands independent investigation into Ganapathy's death" and "Victim allegedly beaten by police died last more than a month in ICU".
Yesterday Malaysiakini sub-editors Rusnizam Mahat and Aedi Asri Abdullah presented themselves at the Bukit Aman police headquarters together with lawyer Kee Hui Yee from the law firm Kanesalingam & Co to assist in the probe.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini reporter B Nantha Kumar was also called in to assist in the investigations but could not attend because he is currently undergoing Covid-19 quarantine.
Another human rights group Human Rights Watch said Malaysian authorities were increasingly using criminal investigations to harass journalists and various other critics of the government.
It added that under the current administration, free speech was increasingly under threat as many were facing potential prosecution and had been subject to police questioning about their work or speech.
“In a rights-respecting democracy, the government does not view journalism as a crime and accepts criticism and satire as free speech,” said Linda Lakhdhir, Human Rights Watch Asia legal advisor, who also cited the case of the Malaysiakini sub-editors being summoned by police. - Mkini
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