More doubts raised over custodial death numbers
A human rights group has disputed the number of deaths in police custody given by Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin during a recent Parliament session.
Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (Edict) pointed out that the figure only included fatalities that took place in police lockups.
“The number given by the home minister on the deaths in custody which occurred from January till August only focuses on...
A human rights group has disputed the number of deaths in police custody given by Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin during a recent Parliament session.
Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (Edict) pointed out that the figure only included fatalities that took place in police lockups.
“The number given by the home minister on the deaths in custody which occurred from January till August only focuses on the deaths in lockups.
“Hence, the number only recorded six detainee deaths,” the group said in a statement today.
This came after another human rights group Suaram also questioned Hamzah’s answer in the Dewan Rakyat.
Last Wednesday, Hamzah gave an oral reply to a question from PKR's Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim regarding custodial death statistics.
He informed the Dewan Rakyat that there were only six deaths in police lockups for this year up to August.
Custodial deaths not only in lockups
Edict argued death in police custody should be defined broadly as detainees who died while under police supervision, regardless of location.
“Death in custody not only means the deaths occurred in police lockup.
"'In custody' means the detainee is under police power and responsibility, regardless of the detainee’s location, be it in a police car, during a chase, or while undergoing treatment in hospital.
“When a person is detained, and if he is found dead soon after he was detained, that death should be counted as a death in custody,” the group said.
Edict added that based on its own statistics compiled through the cases it received, there were 10 deaths in police custody from January to August.
Four cases were recorded in Johor and Selangor respectively, while there was one case each in Kedah and Kelantan.
Among them, four were foreigners, three were Indians, two were Malays, and one was Chinese.
The group said many court cases previously proved the term "death in custody" did not confine to only deaths that happened in a police lockup.
“Hence, we urge the Home Ministry to prepare a more accurate number of deaths in police custody with the mentioned definition,” it added.
Edict also raised its concern over the high Covid-19 infection rate in detention centres and Covid-19 deaths in prison.
It urged Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to explain what measures have been taken to ensure the vaccination process ran smoothly for detainees in prison, immigration depot, and lockup.
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