Three female Chinese nationals who were detained and allegedly abused while in custody last week will file a civil suit against the police force, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohd Bakri Omar and the government.

At a press conference today, their lawyer Sankara Nair said this is "for cruelty, torture and malicious falsehood", pointing out that the arrest and detention was unlawful because his clients hold valid documents. All are married to Malaysians.

"The police should have examined the documents before detaining them for several days...they was also not informed of the (legal provision) under which they were arrested."

The press conference was organised by DAP Seputeh MP Teresa Kok ( second from right ) at her office in Kuala Lumpur.

Yu Xuezhen, 35, was travelling in a car with four friends - another woman Chinese national Gu Xiuhua and three Malaysian men - to a party when they were stopped at a police roadblock in Sungai Buloh on Nov 3.

Yu and Gu, 40, were immediately handcuffed and taken to the Sungai Buloh police station because the officers claimed they were holding fake passports.

The next day they were transferred to the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters where they were detained for four nights and allegedly subjected to abusive treatment.

At the lock-up, they met another Chinese national, Wu Xiao Hua, 34. She too was detained on suspicion of holding a false passport.

All three were released on Nov 7 after the Immigration Department confirmed that their passports were genuine.

Police report lodged

Sankara said a special task force should be set up to investigate the matter.

"The fact that the police asked the women to strip openly is a breach of modesty. There are also elements of corruption and theft," he explained.

Although he accepted the need for a body search, he questioned the manner in which it was conducted - the detainees should not have been humiliated and male officers should not have been be allowed in the women's detention area.

"They were treated roughly because they (police officers) didn't get what they wanted," said Sankara.

The women lodge a police report yesterday about the way they were treated while in custody. A copy of the report was made available to the media.

Yu claimed that a woman police officer had slapped her and grabbed her breasts while she was undressing. Gu's main complaint was that a male officer had made inappropriate remarks about her breasts, while Wu alleged that money had been taken from her.

Kok urged the IGP to allow them to identify the police officers who stand accused of treating them badly.

"If Bukit Aman (police headquarters) takes the matter seriously, the women should be called to an identification parade," she said

She said their inability to read or understand any language apart from their own had prevented them from reading the names of the police officers during detention. However, they can recognise the faces of those involved.

Kok praised them for having the courage to lodge a police report and encouraged more women to come forward in such cases, in order to expose corruption in the police force and malpractice during detention.

"This is one of the many cases that we heard about. It's up to us to assist the IGP to clean up the police force," she added.

The three women will accompany Kok who will submit a two-page letter to Mohd Bakri this afternoon, calling for an independent investigation .

Yesterday, the Internal Security Deputy Minister Chia Kwang Chye promised there would be no cover-up in probing this matter, according to Bernama .