Outraged by developments in a recent custodial death case, a group of lawyers have set up a permanent legal team to extend assistance to family members seeking justice for their loved ones who died at the hands of the police.

Lawyer P Uthayakumar announced the formation of the special legal and defence team by a starting group of 18 lawyers, who have all pledged to waive legal fees for future custodial cases.

"We got together because of our concern over the number of deaths in police custody cases. We may be able to tolerate that people get hit by the police although it is still not right for them to do so.

"But when people die, there can be no compromise. Once a life is lost, it is lost (forever)," he said during a press conference in Cheras this morning.

"It does not matter why these people were arrested. Regardless of the offence, none of them deserved to die in custody," he added.

Aside from Uthayakumar, other lawyers present at the press conference are Patricia Chan, Rosalind Chong, Ronnie Wong, Teoh Lib Peng and Sabrina Richards.

Fear of reprisals

The issue of police custody was highlighted again over the past few week with the death of coconut trader Ho Kwai See while in detention at the Sungai Buloh prison.

Ho's family suspected foul play after seeing bruises across his body but their attempts to find out the cause of his death ran into problems after authorities from the University Malaya Medical Centre refused to carry out a second post-mortem.

The family then got caught in a legal tussle while trying to obtain a court order for the post-mortem. The application was subsequently rejected by the Kuala Lumpur High Court. They filed a notice of appeal yesterday.

Uthayakumar, who has represented several families in similar predicament over the past three years, said many more have decided not to pursue their cases further partly due to fear of reprisal and financial limitation.

"One even asked me if he would be detained under the Internal Security Act if he tried to find out the cause of his brother's death. Because of such fears, a number of people decided not to go further. But it is a principle we want to put forward - people should not die in custody," said the lawyer.

According to him, out of numerous custodial death cases over the past two years, only one inquest has been called and this was for 19-year-old S Tharma Rajen who died after being detained for several months under a preventive detention order.

Donations sought

In a related matter, the police watch and human rights committee of the yet-to-be-registered Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia, today launched a fund the death in police custody and human rights fund - seeking public donations to help defray administrative costs for future cases.

Committee chairperson RN Rajah said although family members in previous cases did not have to pay for legal fees, they were still burdened by other administrative costs.

These include the RM1,000 fee for post-mortem reports while cases involving lawsuits require RM500 as deposit and RM308 for court filing fees.

"Some families simply cannot afford this. The family of Tharma Rajen received a donation to help them but we cannot keep going back to the same people to ask for help in other cases.

"We also do not think it is fair for the lawyers to have to pay for all the costs since they are already taking on the cases pro-bono (free of charge) so we hope the public will help us in this," he said.

Rajah received a mock cheque today for RM500 from construction company, SK Plumbing and Construction, as well as RM200 from legal firm Lee, Ros and Ling.

The police watch committee was first set up in 1999 to assist and defend victims of unlawful police conduct. It was awarded the Suaram human rights award last year for its work, particularly in the Tharma Rajen case.

Those interested in contributing to the fund can contact 03-22825622 or send their donations directly to PWHRC (DPCHRF) account no. 2-14099-0004489-9 with the RHB Bank (Mid Valley branch).