KUALA LUMPUR – Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail should not prematurely conclude that authorities did not have a hand in any custodial deaths during his tenure in office thus far, said a human rights group.
Urging the minister to back his assertion with facts, Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) representative Charles Hector admonished Saifuddin for supposedly failing to wait for a coroner’s decision into the reported custodial deaths.
“We do not want to simply know what the police, the minister, or the detaining authorities concluded with regards to custodial deaths,” Hector, who is also a lawyer, said in a statement today.
“We want to know what the coroner decided after an inquest on the cause of death and whether anyone is criminally liable for the deaths.”
Hector noted that while police might not have fatally beaten or tortured a detainee, authorities might still be held criminally liable for the death as they had failed to monitor and ensure the wellbeing of a detainee under police custody.
Yesterday, Saifuddin told the Dewan Rakyat that all deaths recorded in prisons, police lockups, and Immigration Department depots since 2022 were linked to health issues.
The minister said there were 24 deaths recorded at police lockups between 2022 and May this year due to various health issues, including Covid-19, tuberculosis, heart attack, and pneumonia, while 40 inmates died in prisons.
He claimed that none of the deaths were caused by suicide or injuries inflicted by police.
Hector, however, said Madpet was “appalled” by Saifuddin’s assertions, highlighting that detainees dying of illnesses while under custody raises concerns about the role played by authorities in preventing such deaths.
“Were the detainees who died of Covid-19 and/or tuberculosis quarantined? If not, the police would have failed in their duty of care with regard to other detainees.
“Did those who died of illness succumb while in police lockup or at the hospital? If they died in the place of detention, then a crime may have been committed by the police officers. Why were they (the detainees) not sent to the hospital?”
Stressing that health check-ups for detainees should be made mandatory to discourage the spread of diseases, Hector also said police should not be the ones to determine detainees’ health conditions when they display symptoms.
Besides that, he also called for Putrajaya to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture (Uncat), which Saifuddin had also dismissed in Parliament yesterday.
In denying any move to ratify the convention any time soon, the minister said a ratification would require amendments to existing laws, such as those allowing caning as punishment.
“One must remember that Malaysia has the ability to place conditions or reservations when ratifying or signing a UN convention, maybe by excluding the shariah courts,” Hector said.
“We must ratify Uncat now, amendments to the law can always come later. It is time to end torture in the penal system, in schools, and in Malaysia.” – July 2, 2024