Wan Ji speaks of beatings and friendly faces in prison

INTERVIEW | Muslim preacher Wan Ji Wan Hussin witnessed both the good and bad during his brief detention at Kajang prison.

Wan Ji, who claimed he was assaulted by a prison warden, said he also saw beatings of other prisoners.

At the same time, the preacher said he received solidarity from several prisoners, including a former assemblyperson serving his sentence at the prison, whom he did not name.

"His wife would bring oranges and he will give me three, and he does the same with his bread. The eggs in his plate, he would give me one and keep the other," he told Malaysiakini in an interview.

However, the food given by the prisoners' family is a stark contrast to what they get in prison.

"They give rice and fish which is around three fingers wide with kangkung and some tasteless soup. It felt like pipe water.

"There's also porridge but it looks just like water. They also provide some biscuits and bread," he added.

Wan Ji said the food was unlikely to meet the basic nutritional standard for humans, adding that the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) should take notice of the matter.

"Perhaps Suhakam is not aware. When they visit the prisons, they would be shown the good but surely not the bad."

However, he commended the Prisons Department for conducting weekly health checks on inmates.

Wan Ji was (above) charged in September 2014 with committing sedition against the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, via a Facebook post in 2012.

He was sent to prison by the Shah Alam High Court judge Abdul Halim Aman on July 9 despite the defence indicating that they plan to appeal and wanted a stay on his enhanced sentence of one-year imprisonment under the Sedition Act 1948. 

He was released on July 12 pending appeal after his lawyers formally filed a stay on the sentence.

Wan Ji claimed he was assaulted by a prison warden upon arrival at Kajang prison. 

"There was one person who spoke in Kelantanese dialect. He had his face covered and was wearing a warden's uniform.

"He asked for my name. I said 'Wan Ji'. He then asked me to take off my glasses and then 'bam, bam', he gave it to me three times," he had said.

In the interview, he said his assailant may have also treated other prisoners in the same way.

Wan Ji, who yesterday met with Prisons Department officer Ahmad Shahrul Md Nasir over the matter, said the latter also did not show surprise over the incident.

The preacher added that despite the brief period he was detained, he also witnessed another prisoner being assaulted.

"There was one case, the warden asked the prisoner to take some clothes. When the prisoner took the wrong clothes, he (warden) hit him.

"He stepped on him. That shouldn't happen," he said.

Wan Ji said he could not imagine how foreigners would be treated in prison, especially if they are detained for several months.

As such, he said there was a need to highlight the issue on the treatment of prisoners. - Mkini