Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has confirmed that two immigration officers in charge of the detention centre have been suspended over an incident where two Singapore women were made to do squats in the nude while held in detention.

The duo were suspended pending an internal investigations by a seven-member panel from the ministry.

The minister has yet to receive the investigation report, he told the media during a press conference at his office at Putrajaya today.

NONE To a question that the panellists only comprising of personnel from the ministry may affect the independence of the investigation result, Hishammuddin ( right ) called on all quarters not to make any prejudgment.

“Don’t jump the gun.... wait for the investigation results first.”

Yesterday, several opposition parliamentarians urged the government to include independent parties including the Human Right Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), the Bar Council and members of parliament to be involved in the inquiry.

The panel, comprising officials from the police, prisons and immigration departments, began the probe in Johor yesterday.

It has five days to submit a report to the Immigration Department and may summon the two Singapore women.

Earlier today the Singapore Straits Times quoted Immigration Department director-general Alias Ahmad as saying the two officers were from the Johor Baru Immigration Department.

However, Alias said, the detention was legal as the duo had broken Malaysia’s immigration laws and did not undergo the mandatory biometric fingerprinting procedure.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the allegations were serious and raised concerns, and that it would closely monitor Malaysia’s investigation.

The probe was initiated soon after the two Singapore women complained to the press in their country about their treatment at the hands of the Malaysian Immigration Department.

They said they had driven to Johor Baru during the wee hours of June 9 and passed through an unmanned immigration lane without any hindrance.

Royal commission against nude squats

Upon realising that they had made a mistake, the duo made a U-turn and found themselves at the Immigration Department’s departure counter.

Their explanation of the situation was not accepted and they were promptly detained.

Following this, they said, they were handcuffed, locked in a cramped cell and made to do squats in the nude and finally let off with a warning on the afternoon of June 10.

They two women insist that this proved their innocence and that the humiliation they endured while in detention was unjustified.

In 2006, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Standard Operating Procedure, Rules and Regulations in Relation to the Conduct of Body Search in Respect of an Arrest and Detention declared nude squats an “inhumane and undignified” practice.

It also recommended that the practice be discontinued immediately .

This royal commission was formed by the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration after a video of a woman performing squats in the nude in a police detention centre had been widely circulated.