Home minister: 105 custodial deaths in past 2 years

PARLIAMENT | Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin has provided a breakdown of the 105 people who died while in custody in police lock-up facilities, prisons and immigration detention centres in 2020 and 2021.

He also confirmed that an inquest will be conducted into the custodial death of cow’s milk trader A Ganapathy.

In a Sept 28 parliamentary written reply to Kasthuriraani Patto (Pakatan Harapan-Batu Kawan), Hamzah said a total of 42 people had died while in custody in 2021 thus far.

In 2020, he said there were a total of 63 custodial deaths.

Hamzah provided additional details on the 21 prison custodial deaths in 2020 and 2021 but did not break them down by year.

Kasthuriraani had also asked about the progress of installing close circuit television (CCTV) inside all police lock-ups after Budget 2020 allocated money for it.

Hamzah said the installations had begun on April 15 this year and the project was at 40 percent progress.

“The CCTV installation project in police lock-ups is expected to be completed at the end of the year,” he said.

Budget 2020 had allocated RM50 million to improve detention centres by installing CCTVs inside police lockups as well as immigration entry and exit points.

Inquest into Ganapathy’s death

In parliamentary written replies to Gobind Singh Deo (Harapan-Puchong) and Charles Santiago (Harapan-Klang), Hamzah confirmed that the police had requested an inquest into A Ganapathy’s (also spelt Ghanapathy) death.

“Referring to A Ghanapathy’s case, investigations were completed and a referral was made to the Selangor state prosecution director’s office (PPN) with a proposal for an inquest.

“On July 12, 2021, the decision to hold an inquest was accepted. Following that, the police registered an inquest application at the Shah Alam Coroner’s Court on Aug 30, 2021,” he told both.

Hamzah also said that investigations were still underway for the custodial deaths of S Sivabalan, S Surendran and Umar Faruq Abdullah.

Meanwhile, the minister disclosed the number of youths in prisons and immigration detention centres.

Fahmi Fadzil (Harapan-Lembah Pantai) had asked him for the number of teenagers detained at such facilities.

Instead of providing numbers on teenagers, Hamzah answered that there were 2,881 prison detainees “under the age of 21” as of Aug 25, 2021.

Of the 2,881, 45 were remand prisoners while 2,836 were convicted prisoners.

“Meanwhile, at the Immigration Department, there were 1,490 young detainees at immigration depots and temporary immigration depots nationwide as of Aug 25, 2021,” he also said in a parliamentary written reply.