Malaysian police guilty of rights abuses: Inquiry

Malaysian police guilty of rights abuses: Inquiry

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Malaysia's police were guilty of violating human rights and "cruel and inhuman" treatment of detainees after a mass anti-government protest last November, a top-level inquiry found Monday.

The government-backed Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, in a 66-page report of its first public inquiry since it was established in April last year, found police used excessive force against protesters.

Water cannon and teargas were brought to bear on some 5,000 supporters of jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim gathered on the Kesas highway near Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 5 and 116 people were detained.

Police had declared a planned rally in support of Anwar illegal and blocked access to the venue, sparking the demonstration led by key opposition leaders including Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Some detainees later complained to the commission -- known by its Malay acronym Suhakam -- of police brutality and a three- member panel began the inquiry in December.

"The panel is clearly of the view that there were several violations of human rights arising from the Kesas highway incident," the head of the panel, former chief justice Anuar Zainal Abidin, told a press conference.

He cited the use of force on demonstrators, confiscating and causing damage to private property, causing injury to detainees and a delay in providing medical aid to them.

The human rights commission, which interviewed 16 police officials, said it had not pinpointed the officers involved in the alleged abuses, but stressed that police had committed offenses including "the cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees."

"The agency responsible for the human rights violations is the police, (but) no individuals have been identified, apart from two officers who were named for kicking a car," the report said.

"The agency responsible for the human rights violations is the police," it said.

"The panel finds that the treatment of persons detained was cruel and inhuman."

Anuar blamed the violations on "total denial and domination action," a police term referring to steps taken to gain total control of a situation.

The panel said it was "extremely disturbed" that special branch police later gathered security intelligence by questioning detainees on matters unrelated to the alleged offence they were held for.

It voiced concern over "misuse of police bail for an indefinite period" and said those not charged within a month should be released unconditionally.

The panel said it was not an offense to wear a tee-shirt bearing a picture of Anwar, and criticized police for detaining a 17-year-old girl for five days on that basis.

It said an attack on a plainclothes police officer at the time was probably "orchestrated to turn an otherwise peaceful gathering into a violent one."

Meanwhile, lawyers have filed a court application seeking to free the son of the spiritual leader of Malaysia's opposition Islamic party detained under a security law, an official said Monday.

A 'habeas corpus' application was submitted Sunday to a high court in eastern Kelantan state to challenge the arrest of Nik Adli Nik Abdul Aziz under the Internal Security Act (ISA), said Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) youth chief Mahfuz Omar.

The hearing has been fixed for Sept. 5, the Sun newspaper reported.

Nik Adli, 34, is a teacher at a religious school in Kelantan and the son of Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, PAS's influential spiritual leader and Kelantan chief minister.

He was among 10 people arrested earlier this month under the ISA, which allows indefinite detention without trial, on suspicion of being members of the so-called "Malaysian Mujahideen Group" waging a "holy war."