Musa Hassan: Cops must have right to appeal under IPCMC

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — The proposal to set up an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) must include an avenue for any convicted police officer to exercise his right to appeal, Tan Sri Musa Hassan has said. 

The retired Inspector-General of Police said the IPCMC proposed by the 2005 Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) had not included such a clause to permit convicted officers to appeal decisions in court. 

He questioned the rationale behind this, saying that the police should be given their fair share of fairness and justice, despite widespread criticisms against the force over the recent spate of lock-up deaths. 

“If criminals can appeal their sentences, why can’t the police appeal?” he told The Malaysian Insider. 

Musa (picture)  was responding to the resounding chorus of demands from civil society groups and Malaysians for the establishment of the IPCMC to check police abuse and put an end to the growing number of custodial deaths. 

The deaths of eight detainees over the past five months, three within 11 days of each other, had triggered public outrage over the police treatment of suspects in the lock-up, especially after a government hospital autopsy report on one N. Dharmendran revealed the 32-year-old had died as the result of multiple beatings. 

On Wednesday, three of the four police officers who allegedly caused Dhamanderan’s death were charged with murder under section 302 of the Penal Code. A fourth accused is still at large. 

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.” 

The Malaysian Bar, civil society groups and several politicians from both sides of the divide have called for the IPCMC to be implemented to reform the police force since 2006. 

The IPCMC, which was mooted by a royal commission chaired by former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah but shot down by the police, was to be modelled on the United Kingdom’s Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), as well as other police oversight bodies in New South Wales and Queensland in Australia, and Hong Kong. 

Asked to comment on the spate of deaths, Musa said he suspected that many detainees had died due to health complications. 

He added that this was not the first time that the police was facing the heat for custodial deaths. 

Musa also added that during his term as IGP, he had called for the formation of the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), an investigative authority much like the IPCMC, that was to be tasked with handling disciplinary cases among the police, including suggesting punishment. 

“If there is a crime, the commission should recommend action to the Attorney-General’s Chambers,” Musa said. 

He explained that the PIC proposal was forwarded to the prime minister but the AGC later established the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC), an authority wit investigative powers against the police and 18 other government agencies. 

According to human rights group Suaram, there were over 220 cases of alleged deaths in custody in Malaysia from 2000 to May, with its records showing that nine of those cases occurred in 2012 while eight cases took place this year.