Lawyers for Liberty has urged the police to help ensure the findings of Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission’s (EAIC) on the custodial death investigations of S Balamurugan and Soh Kai Chiok lead to action against those responsible.
"We commend EAIC’s excellent work in investigating cases of custodial deaths, making findings and recommendations and providing an additional layer of accountability.
“In two other inquiries into the deaths of N Dharmendran (photo) and Syed Mohd Azlan, EAIC’s recommendations have led to the prosecution of several police officers under the Penal Code for murder (section 302) and culpable homicide not amounting to murder (section 304(b)) respectively.
“However, in both cases, the prosecution failed to prove their case, and the perpetrators were ultimately acquitted of all charges,” said LFL executive director Eric Paulsen in a statement.
“We are concerned EAIC’s work will be in vain as criminal prosecution rarely leads to conviction unless the 'blue wall of silence' is broken.
“In order for any real change to occur, the police force themselves must be willing to change and not tolerate any further custodial deaths,” he said.
He cited previous cases where police officers were often reluctant to testify against fellow police officers, resulting in a failure to secure a conviction.
On Thursday, the EAIC announced their findings that police had committed several serious breaches of conduct and abuses of power in relation to the death of Balamurugan last year.
"The commission finds the police's failure to release the deceased after their remand order was rejected by the magistrate is a serious misconduct of not obeying the court," EAIC chief A Aziz A Rahim (photo) said.
Balamurugan was arrested and allegedly beaten at the Bandar Baru Klang police station on Feb 6, 2017, before he was taken to the Shah Alam centralised lock-up facility for a few hours, and then sent for a remand hearing at a Klang magistrate's court in the morning.
The magistrate ordered that Balamurugan be released, but he was instead held at the North Klang police district headquarters, and was found dead in the early hours of Feb 8.
On Oct 30 last year, police inspector Mohaneswaran Thiagarajah claimed trial on charges of voluntarily causing hurt to Balamurugan to extort a confession.
Meanwhile, Soh was detained on Jan 12 last year after being caught stealing bananas. He died a week later, on Jan 18.
The EAIC found the police had failed to provide Soh much-needed medical attention and had also violated a court order by holding Soh at Bera police district headquarters on the night of Jan 17.
'Take detainee rights seriously'
The police, said Paulsen, need to enforce strict standard operating procedures to avoid further deaths in custody.
“The police must start taking the rights of detainees seriously by strictly enforcing the laws and SOPs governing arrest, investigation, remand and detention of detainees, and in doing so will minimise the abuse of power over detainees.
“Senior police officers must lead by example and ensure the SOPs on lockup management, CCTV, investigation, detention, welfare of detainees including providing medical attention to ill or injured detainees are strictly observed,” he said.
“When a death occurs during their watch, the police must not instinctively try to cover up or minimise culpability but instead to genuinely investigate and ensure that all those responsible, from the highest rank to the lowest rank are dealt with accordingly whether through criminal prosecution or disciplinary action.
“The most serious breaches, and in cases of criminal conduct should lead to criminal prosecution and sacking.”
Last February, Klang MP Charles Santiago noted Balamurugan was the 243rd victim of custodial death at the time of writing, since 2000.- Mkini
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