Lawyer M Manoharan has written a letter urging Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to channel his suggestions to all magistrates nationwide on how to improve remand proceedings in order to reduce the number of deaths in custody.
“In the past one and a half month alone, there have been four very tragic deaths in custody, that were the deaths of A Ganapathy, Surendran Shanker, Sivabalan Subramaniam (and Umar Faruq Abdullah @ Hemananthan).
“With all due respect, we believe all these deaths occurred when the victims were in custody after they were placed under remand by the magistrate’s court.
“We humbly request your good grace in reviewing, examining and focusing on the remand proceedings carried out by the magistrates in court throughout Malaysia.
“We believe that with strict, fair and just control and monitoring from your side, it will be able to prevent deaths in custody from happening as they are now,” Manoharan said in the letter sent to Tengku Maimun, dated June 10.
Manoharan is the counsel for the family of Sivabalan and the family of Umar Faruq, both of whom died while in police custody on May 20 and June 3, respectively.
The lawyer, who is also a former Selangor assemblyperson, had listed 10 proposals in his letter to the chief justice for the remand proceedings.
The 10 suggestions are as follows:
1. Deny remand applications for suspects where the wrongdoing being investigated is said to be more than one month ago.
2. Deny remand applications for any suspects not represented by legal counsel.
3. Deny remand applications for any suspects who suffer from any illnesses that require regular treatment such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases.
4. Deny remand applications for suspects who clearly have injuries on any part of their body.
5. Deny remand applications for all petty wrongdoings that only carry a jail term of no more than 14 days.
6. Deny remand applications for all major wrongdoings that do not have the permission of a deputy public prosecutor and do not have a charge sheet prepared.
7. Deny remand applications for all underaged suspects, those who are 17 years old and below.
8. Deny remand applications for all suspects who were brought to court after more than 12 hours since the arrest was made, if the police fail to show any results from their investigations from the first 12 hours.
9. Deny remand applications for suspects brought to court by the police with the sole excuse of bringing them for identification purposes only.
10. Deny remand applications for suspects brought to court by police with the sole excuse of recording the suspect’s statements.
Manoharan said Umar Faruq was handed a four-day remand order, which is the maximum remand period for a small crime.
“We do not want the court to be dragged in as one of those responsible for deaths in custody.
“We humbly request that our suggestions will be considered fully in order to save more innocent lives, where many among them are the sole breadwinner for their family,” he concluded. - Mkini
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