Anwar urges Suhakam to take up issue of police lockup deaths

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today urged Suhakam to take up the issue of deaths in police lockups.

All efforts towards the protection of those in police lockups must be supported, he added in his speech at Suhakam’s 25th-anniversary celebration in KL Sentral this afternoon.

“That is why we need proper procedures and protection and this requires of course the full study endorsement of Suhakam to take it up again.

“I suppose the best thing is to discuss with the police which we have partly done and visit the lockup.

“I can join you because I’m quite familiar with these areas,” he said.

Claims questioned

In July, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that all the deaths recorded in prisons, police lockups and Immigration Department depots since 2022 were related to health problems.

However, Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture questioned the veracity of Saifuddin’s claims.

Its spokesperson Charles Hector urged Putrajaya to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture - a move Saifuddin had also dismissed in Parliament.

In his speech, Anwar said that proper procedures and protections were needed to handle the matter of police death lockups.

He said the government has already made moves in the right direction, such as with the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846).

This was despite the act being difficult and controversial, he noted.

“But the wisdom was that every political party in the government was directed, not only the cabinet… to provide views so that there was literacy, understanding, about basic rights that do not violate their religious or cultural principles,” he added.

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