EAIC mulls probes on deaths in custody, police shootings

Nor Afizah Hanum said it was not fair to say the police does not investigate it officers’ discharge of weapons. —Picture by Saw Siow FengPUTRAJAYA, June 5 ― The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) is considering opening investigations on deaths in custody or fatal police shootings on its own initiative, after eight people died in police custody this year.

EAIC chief executive Nor Afizah Hanum Mokhtar said that the commission was looking at the mechanisms of investigating the death of 32-year-old N. Dharmendran, who died on May 21 from multiple beatings while under remand at the police contingent headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, as well as that of R. Jamesh Ramesh at the Penang police contingent headquarters on May 26.

“We are looking at how we can investigate deaths in police custody, like Dharmendran and the one in Penang, even though nobody has filed any complaints,” Nor Afizah Hanum told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview at her office here on Monday.

“We want to investigate cases of public interest, even when we do not receive complaints,” she added.

Section 28 of the EAIC Act 2009 states that the EAIC is empowered to start investigations on its own initiative in matters of public interest.

Nor Afizah Hanum said that the EAIC ― which probes complaints of misconduct against 19 enforcement agencies, including the police ― was hampered by a lack of manpower in investigating previous death in custody cases, noting that the commission has yet to receive complaints of a criminal nature.

The former Sessions Court judge pointed out that the EAIC, which was set up about two years ago on April 2011, only has one investigating officer and an annual budget of just RM7 million.

“We also don’t want to do double investigations on deaths in custody. The minute we do investigations, they have to stop investigations, so we have to tread very carefully,” said Nor Afizah Hanum, referring to the police.

Another man, P. Karuna Nithi, 43, died in police custody last Saturday at the Tampin lock-up in Seremban, sparking public uproar and renewed calls for the formation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to make the police force accountable for abuse of power.

According to human rights group Suaram, 218 cases of alleged deaths in custody in Malaysia took place from 2000 to this month, with its records showing that nine of those cases occurred in 2012, while eight cases have occurred so far in just five months this year.

A United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 2010 visit to Malaysian prisons and detention centres reported in 2011 that between 2003 and 2007, “over 1,500 people died while being held by authorities.”

Nor Afizah Hanum stressed that the EAIC, which reports to Parliament, has vast powers in investigating cases of misconduct, although it did not have disciplinary powers.

“We do not bow down to the police at all. We are independent,” she said. “Our investigator has all the powers that police investigators have.”

The Home Ministry reportedly told Parliament last October that 298 people were shot dead by the police between 2007 and August 2012, including 151 Indonesians and 134 Malaysians ― an average of one fatal shooting a week.

The UK’s Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), on which the proposed IPCMC is based on, automatically investigates all cases where police officers open fire.

Nor Afizah Hanum, however, said that the Malaysian police force has internal mechanisms to investigate such incidents.

“It’s not fair to say no action has been taken. How do you know no action was taken against trigger-happy police? I know a few cases where the police took action,” she said.

She noted that when she was a prosecutor in the 1990s, a police officer was terminated for firing a shot in the air when his wife caught him in bed with another woman.

Nor Afizah Hanum stressed that the EAIC sought to investigate not just deaths in custody or deadly police shootings, but also other cases of public interest that were not necessarily fatal.

“For example, the China national being asked to strip and squat,” she said, referring to the case in 2005 where a Malaysian woman, who was initially mistaken as a Chinese national, was ordered to perform squats in the nude in a police lock-up.

When asked if the police should be required to report to the EAIC on cases of deaths in custody or fatal shootings, Nor Afizah Hanum said that red tape should not be added.

“We should not restrict ourselves,” she said, pointing out that the police did not inform the EAIC about Dharmendran’s death.

Nor Afizah Hanum added that the EAIC needed at least 10 investigating officers and 10 research officers, besides an annual budget of at least RM25 million, to work on more cases.

She revealed that the EAIC has received 469 complaints as of May 31 this year since its formation in 2011, with 353 complaints against the police. Twenty-one complaints were lodged against the Immigration Department, 15 against JPJ, 10 against the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, and nine against the Customs Department.

Investigations were opened for 124 out of 469 complaints, with one case resulting in a recommendation of disciplinary action against the police.

The EAIC investigates complaints of misconduct against the police force, the Immigration Department, the Customs Department, the RELA Corps, the National Anti-Drug Agency, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, the Department of Environment, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, the National Registration Department, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Road Transport Department, the Department of Industrial Relations, the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, the Manpower Department, the Health Ministry (Enforcement), the Tourism Ministry (Enforcement and licensing units), the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry (Enforcement) and the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (Enforcement).