• Police: Death in custody due to �inflammation of lungs�
  • K Kabilan
  • 981932171
  • An opposition party member and reformasi supporter had died in the police custody two years ago due to an inflammation in his lungs and not of police brutality as alleged by his widow.

    The police said this in their defence filed as a response to a suit by widow Suzana Md Aris on May 19 last year on the sudden death of Mohd Anuar Sharip at the Selayang lock-up on Aug 18, 1999.

    She claimed her husband, who was a member of Keadilan, was taken away by the police from their house in Batu Caves at midnight on Aug 10, 1999, and died eight days later, allegedly due to police brutality.

    Suzana is claiming RM682,400 with interests from the Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai, Gombak OCPD Massari Hashim, Gombak Crime Division Chief Ishak Hussain and the government, who are the defendants.

    In their defence, served on Suzana's lawyer P Uthayakumar this morning, the defendants denied responsibility to Mohd Anuar's death. Suzana had served her summons on the defendants on Dec 14 last year.

    Arrested legally

    They said that Mohd Anuar was arrested at his house in accordance to the law and denied conducting any search in the house. They added that Mohd Anuar was arrested for drug related offences.

    They said that Mohd Anuar was a drug addict, adding that this was confirmed by a urine check on him, which had traces of morphine.

    Suzana had claimed that her husband was unlawfully detained by the police, who also had conducted an illegal search in their house without finding anything.

    Suzana had also alleged that on Aug 18, the police had left a note at her mother's house asking the family to contact the Rawang police chief as Mohd Anuar had died.

    To this, the defendants said that a police patrol car unit left the note at the house as no one was in the house at that time.

    They denied assaulting Mohd Anuar in custody and claimed that he had died of an inflammation of his lungs.

    Suzana had said that Mohd Anuar's post-mortem report stated that he had suffered from "multiple laceration lesion over the neck, chest, abdomen and back region" and that some parts of his stomach had a clear "blue-black" wound suggesting that he was severely kicked or punched.