The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) has identified at least 15 senior trainees allegedly involved in torturing a recruit including forcing him to drink his own vomit, news reports said today.

Police will question the trainees at the flight college who also allegedly dunked the recruit in sewage drums during the torture sessions, some of which were videotaped, the New Straits Times reported.

The plight of the 20-year old recruit, Muhammed Hazim Ahmad Azman, was made public after his father lodged a police report last week, the newspaper said.

The father had seen footage of the alleged abuse captured on a mobile phone and digital camera of Hazim's friend.

The torture, which started in September last year, included making the aeronautical engineering student crawl on his knuckles.

The footage of the harassment at the training college in Kepala Batas in northern Penang state was also aired by popular private television stations TV3 and 8TV on Monday.

The police have recorded statements from more than 100 trainees at the college. The 15 third-year trainees allegedly involved will be questioned soon, police added.

They could face one year in jail if found guilty of causing injury.

Act of revenge?

The RMAF in a statement yesterday said investigations would be completed in two weeks.

"The RMAF will not make any compromises in this matter. Strict action will be taken against everyone involved, and we will make sure that such an incident does not recur," it said.

The Star newspaper today quoted the victim's father as saying that his son was tortured as some sort of revenge by the seniors.

"My son told me the torture began after he denied threatening a senior trainee last year. The senior ganged up with 15 others to force my son to admit his fault," said Ahmad Azman Ghazali, according to the Star.

Air force officials said in reports that despite a ban on physical abuse, it remained rampant between seniors and juniors.