Cop: Superior ordered us to delete photos of Wang Kelian operations
WANG KELIAN RCI | A police officer, who led a team to surveil and later destroy human trafficking camps in the jungle near the Malaysian-Thai border, claimed his superior instructed him to delete photographs of the operations.
“There was a time in March or April 2015 when I received an order from my 'pegawai pemerintah' (commanding officer) that those with photographs of Wang Kelian must delete them (from their devices)...
WANG KELIAN RCI | A police officer, who led a team to surveil and later destroy human trafficking camps in the jungle near the Malaysian-Thai border, claimed his superior instructed him to delete photographs of the operations.
“There was a time in March or April 2015 when I received an order from my 'pegawai pemerintah' (commanding officer) that those with photographs of Wang Kelian must delete them (from their devices).
“The photographs could only be stored at the battalion,” said ASP MA Joeking, adding that he complied with the order.
Pressed on who issued the order, Joeking (photo,above), who was testifying at the Wang Kelian Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in Putrajaya today, repeated that it was his “pegawai pemerintah.”
Earlier, he had revealed that his immediate superior at the time was one Supt Wan Hamzah Wan Kadir.
Wan Hamzah is expected to be called to testify before the RCI.
Read more: 'We found graves on mission to destroy human trafficking camps'
On Jan 19, 2015, Joeking headed a surveillance mission into the jungle after receiving information about the camps and possible illicit activities there.
His officer Mohd Mossadique Azni, who led a smaller 10-member team into the actual camps, later informed him that people at the camps had detected their presence and most of them escaped before the team arrived.
The next day, Joeking received specific instructions from then-Perlis deputy police chief to “musnahkan kem tersebut” (destroy the camps), but was not given a reason.
On Jan 21, the ASP led a 30-member team to destroy all structures at the human trafficking camps and they began by burning the pieces of blue canvas found there.
However, he instructed his team to stop burning or destroying anything after discovering several graves in the area.
Back in 2015, 139 graves containing 106 bodies, many believed to be of trafficked Rohingya refugees, were discovered deep in the jungles of Bukit Genting Perah and Bukit Wang Burma, just a few hundred metres from the Thai-Malaysian border in Wang Kelian, Perlis.
Twenty-eight trafficking detention camps were also discovered.
Four years on, Malaysian authorities have charged just four foreign men linked to a trafficking syndicate for the mass graves while Thai authorities have charged 62 individuals, including nine government officials.
The Home Ministry set up the RCI in January and appointed former chief justice Ariffin Zakaria to chair it.
Ariffin is assisted by former inspector-general of police Norian Mai, along with five commissioners - former ambassador to Thailand Nazirah Hussin; former Public Accounts Committee deputy chairperson Tan Seng Giaw; former chief prosecutor Noorbahri Baharuddin; former Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) chairperson Razali Ismail; and former head of research in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Junaidah Abdul Rahman.
The proceedings are being conducted by deputy public prosecutors Khairul Anuar Abs Halim and Saiful Hazmi Mohd Saad.
The inquiry has been given six months till September this year to prepare a report.
The public hearing will resume on Monday (Apr 22).
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