Suaram records 8 deaths in custody last year

 

Human rights NGO Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) has documented eight cases of deaths in the authorities' custody last year.

The documentation was part of its Human Rights Report 2020 which touched on issues such as detentions without trial, action taken under the law deemed as repressive, and action taken in relation to peaceful assemblies.

Suaram's first recorded case of death in custody last year happened to an individual identified as G Jestus Kevin who died on April 5 at the Bentong police station in Pahang.

This was followed by the deaths of:

• Dhan Bahadur at the Jinjang police station in Kuala Lumpur on May 31
• Zeeawdeen Kadar Masdar at the Maeps Quarantine Centre in Selangor on June 12 under Immigration custody
• V Mugilarasu at the Sungai Buloh prison in Selangor on July 2
• Wong Kok Leong at the Georgetown Court Complex in Penang on July 17

Three other cases involving unnamed individuals were recorded on July 2, Sept 1, and Sept 13.

According to Suaram, Wong's death was officially reported as an accidental fall. The other deaths were labelled as "medical" or "unreported", except for the case on July 17 where the cause of death has not been determined.

"Access to justice saw no improvement in 2020, with cases related to police abuse of power showing no sign of decreasing. Deaths in custody, chain remand, and police shootings continued to happen with no accountability or oversight," said Suaram CEO Sevan Doraisamy (above).

Suaram's report was released today amid the push to investigate the death of A Ganapathy due to an alleged beating by the police when he was in custody.

Ganapathy died at the Selayang hospital last month on April 18 and the family's lawyer said an autopsy revealed the death was due to injuries to his legs and shoulders.

Suaram's documentation showed that 828 individuals were arrested without trial under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma). They said another 667 were detained without trial under the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca).

"The pandemic and the restriction of movement did not slow down the use of such laws which are often justified on the grounds of 'crime prevention'," Sevan said.

He added that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government was less willing to tolerate dissent and did not hesitate to utilise repressive laws to curtail and deter public criticism.

"Suaram has documented a total of 98 cases that were either arrested, investigated, charged, or found guilty under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998."

On top of that, it noted that last year, there were 24 cases either investigated, arrested, charged or found guilty under the Sedition Act 1948, which was the highest since 2016.

Due to the movement control order (MCO), Sevan said the freedom to assemble was heavily curtailed last year. A total of 25 individuals have been investigated, arrested, or charged in relation to peaceful assemblies. However, these figures were the smallest as compared to the last five years.

He said that the implementation of the MCO also accentuated the plight of migrant workers in Malaysia.

"While the lockdown has highlighted many human rights cases of abuse and exploitation faced by migrant workers, they further suffer from social stigmatisation because there is no urgency to reform or enact laws that offer some protection for the rights and welfare of migrant workers," he said. - Mkini