Parti Rakyat Keadilan (Keadilan) wants Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to practice at home what he was preaching to the United States and Britain about the inhuman treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

Its deputy president, Dr Syed Husin Ali, asked if the premier is going to do anything about the brutal and inhuman treatment of Malaysian prisoners by the Malaysian police.

"Please walk your talk, Datuk Seri!" he exclaimed in a statement.

Repeating Abdullah's advice to the US and Britain, Syed Husin said the prime minister "must not wash off (his) guilt" and that he "must show (his) commitment in holding human rights of... prisoners".

He used the news quotes attributed to Abdullah.

"Your criticisms of the US and Britain will sound hollow if you do not follow them up with appropriate actions on happenings behind our own backyard," he said, referring to two deaths under police custody this year.

In one case, Francis G Udayappan went missing after being arrested and questioned by the police.

"But his family members are convinced that he has died and that the police are trying to cover up his truth on the circumstances of his death," he said.

18 died last year

Syed Husin said last year, 18 persons were reported to have died while in prison or under police custody.

He said there is an average of one death per week over the last few years, a figure that has yet to be denied by the police or the Internal Security Ministry.

"Of course, we are not enumerating here cases of police violence during peaceful demonstrations and during interrogations of all types of detainees."

Echoing Abdullah's advice to the US and British troops to stop such treatment of Iraqi prisoners, the opposition leader strongly urged the government "to identify those responsible and take action against them".

Abdullah was responding to recently-published media reports depicting maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners of war by American and British soldiers.

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad was quoted by national news agency Bernama as saying that the "terrible" incidents were due to indiscipline among the coalition soldiers.