Suaram and the FreedomFilmFest have collaborated to premiere a short animation last night depicting a detainee’s experience of police brutality while in lock-up, titled "Chilli Powder and Thinner".
It is based on the real-life experience of a teenager, San (not his real name), who was arrested and beaten by the police along with two other individuals.
In the animation, they are shown being tied up and beaten with objects such as wooden sticks and rubber pipes, before their bodies were smeared with chilli powder and thinner.
“This animation is about what kind of torture the 16-year-old boy went through under police lockup,” Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said to Malaysiakini when contacted today.
The chilli powder and thinner were used to rub the wounds on the boy’s body to force him to confess, he said.
Sevan revealed that Suaram had been involved in the teenager’s case, in which the boy was arrested for allegedly possessing stolen goods.
Sevan claimed that the boy was willing to cooperate, but was “tortured in a brutal manner”, along with two other inmates who later died.
“So the 16-year-old boy is an eyewitness to the torture. He was released and was re-arrested by the police under the Prevention of Crime Act (Poca) because the boy was listed as an eyewitness by the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) in their investigation for the deaths in custody,” he alleged.
Sevan also pointed out that Poca is an act meant for hardcore criminals, not teenagers arrested for allegedly possessing stolen goods.
Deaths in custody have come under public scrutiny again as there have been at least four widely-reported cases since mid-April.
Cow milk trader A Ganapathy had died at the Selayang Hospital on April 18.
His family said he was arrested on Feb 24, and they were informed by the police on March 8 that he had been released and admitted to the Selayang Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
Gombak district police chief Arifai Tarawe at the time said preliminary investigations revealed that Ganapathy never complained of assault when he was brought before a magistrate three times on Feb 25, March 2 and March 6.
On May 20, security guard S Sivabalan died at the Gombak police station.
Selangor police stressed that an autopsy also found Sivabalan had died of a heart attack and no "physical injuries" were found on his body.
A week later, Surendran Shanker died while in custody at the Simpang Renggam prison in Johor.
It was also reported that lorry driver Umar Faruq Abdullah @ Hemananthan had died while in police custody at the Klang Selatan district police headquarters on June 3.
The family had alleged something was amiss but police attributed Umar's death to a botched escape attempt. - Mkini
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