THANK YOU - Dharmendran's widow to M'sians for helping to get his killers to court

UPDATE3 Three of the four policemen involved in interrogating N Dharmendran have been charged for his murder, signaling a victory for his family, their lawyers and the Malaysian Indian community at large.

"Saya puas hati ... I am satisfied but I will wait for the trial and I will watch very carefully. I want to thank all Malaysians who have supported my plea for justice for my husband and our child," M Marry, his widow, toldMalaysia Chronicle at the sidelines of the trial.

"I still want those who are guilty to get what they deserve even if it means hanging to death."

She also told Malaysia Chronicle she remembered seeing the three policemen at the lockup when she went to see her husband on the day he was killed. She had gone to bring him some 'nasi ayam' or chicken rice but the police had refused to let her give it to him.

Massive public outcry

Marry's tearful plea for justice over the weekend had touched the hearts of millions of Malaysians, triggering a massive public outcry that forced Prime Minister Najib Razak's government to finally take action.

And while her family lawyers acknowledged the step forward, they warned a long journey still lay ahead - not just for Marry and her two-year-old son but for the Indian community at large and human rights in Malaysia in general.

"The family is relieved that the three policemen have been charged for murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code. This was the proper thing to do. However, we do not believe this would have happened if not for the massive public outrage and public pressure on the government to act," N Surendran, lawyer for the Dharmendran family, told reporters outside the courtroom.

"And there are still many questions still unanswered that we want answers to. For example, why did the CID chief of Kuala Lumpur (Ku Chin Wah) initially announce that Dharmendran had breathing difficulties and died from this. There has been no attempt by the police force to explain and we view this as an attempt to corrupt. And the family does not want others to go through this again, what Marry, Dharmendran's father have gone through. As such they would not be satisfied until an IPCMC (independent police complaints and misconduct commission) is set up."

Indeed, today's court proceedings took place only after hours of hush-hush and near cloak-and-dagger secrecy, with the Attorney-General's Chambers finally entering the courtroom around 4.15pm.

Murder charges under Section 302 were then read out to the 3 cops, but no plea was taken as the Chemistry Report is still being finalized by the forensics department. The accused were Jaffri Jaafar, Mohd Nahar Abd Rahman and Mohd Haswadi Zamri Shaari, aged 44, 45 and 32 respectively

The trio, all Malays, were in plainclothes and kept their chin up while the charges were read. One more policeman involved in questioning Dharmendran, who was remanded for suspected involvement in a fight, is still at large and due to be brought to court later, according to lawyers for the Dharmendran family.

Runaround by the AG's Chambers

Family members told Malaysia Chronicle the Attorney General's Chambers had not taken the trouble to inform them and they only learned of the impending charges through press reports. By 3:58pm, they had been waiting for more than an hour and had been given the runaround as to which courtroom in the sprawling Jalan Duta court complex would be used for the arraignment.

"We had to change courts because they wouldn't tell us where and they tried to hide the information from," said one of Dharmendran's cousins, adding that he was afraid the AG might suddenly announcement a postponement.

The 31-year-old Dharmendran, an employee of sewage treatment utility Indah Water, had been remanded since May 11 for suspected involvement in a fight. He was found dead in police custody on May 21. Police bigwigs including KL CID chief Ku Chin Wah had suggested he died due to a heart attack or from some form of chest complications.

However, the autopsy report performed by Dr Siew Sheue Feng, the forensics expert from Hospital Kuala Lumpur, was conclusive in stating otherwise. The autopsy also found a shocking 52 injury marks on his body.

"There was no significant natural disease found in his body that could have caused or contributed to his death at that particular moment in time. Post-mortem examination revealed he sustained multiple blunt force trauma in his body. These injuries were caused by blunt objects and the wounds were relatively fresh. No defensive wound was identified in the body of the deceased. The overall pattern of these injuries is neither self-inflicted nor accidental in nature," the summary and conclusion of Dr Siew's report had stated.

If IPCMC had been set, Dharmendran would be alive today

Surendran also brushed off a proposal by the prime minister to set up a special task force as "more delay", questioning Najib's reluctance to set up the IPCMC, which had been recommended in 2005 by the Dziaddin commission after a public survey and inquiry into the country's police force was conducted.

"If the IPCMC had been set up 8 years ago, we believe Dharmendran would be alive today, Kugan would be alive today, many of those who died in custody would be alive today. The govt has blood on it hands by their failure to set up the IPCMC, that made the deaths continue. These so called taskforces and panels are useless as we who are practising human rights lawyers can tell you. Set up the IPCMC immediately and why is the prime minister reluctant to do so," said Surendran.

His colleague, Latheefa Koya, said they had been instructed by the family to hold a watching brief on the case. M Manogaran will assist in the watch.

"We will be keeping a watching brief on case to ensure it proceeds as it should without any gloss over," Latheefa  told the media.