Report 'lying under oath' prison officers to police, Suhakam urged

Summary

• Suaram urges Suhakam to lodge a police report against Taiping Prison officers accused of giving false testimony during an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses at the prison.

• The group cites CCTV evidence contradicting officers’ denials and warns that inaction would damage Suhakam’s credibility and public confidence.

Human rights group Suaram has urged Suhakam to take action against prison officers who were allegedly caught lying while testifying under oath during its proceedings.

The NGO said it is concerned by Suhakam’s reluctance to lodge a police report over the issue and argued that its reservations are misplaced.

“If Suhakam fails to act now despite what appears to us (as) glaring evidence of false testimony, it risks setting a damaging precedent for its future inquiries - and by extension, dents the independence, effectiveness and integrity of its human rights protection mandate as an A-status national human rights institution.

“Suaram, therefore, calls on Suhakam to immediately lodge a police report to commence an independent investigation into the pattern of false and misleading testimony observed during the inquiry.

“If Suhakam is to play a serious role in holding enforcement authorities accountable, it must demonstrate that its processes cannot be manipulated.

“Delaying action only ends the wrong signal about institutional tolerance for false testimony under oath and weakens public confidence in the inquiry’s outcome,” said Suaram executive director Azura Nasron in a statement today.

Azura (above) also warned that dishonest testimonies also risk obscuring details not captured by CCTV recordings and are essential to ensuring Suhakam has a complete picture of events, especially since the CCTV cameras did not record audio.

Public inquiry

Suhakam is conducting a public inquiry on alleged human rights abuses in Taiping Prison, following the death of an inmate, Gan Chin Eng, who purportedly died after being assaulted by a warden during a riot on Jan 17.

According to Azura, several Taiping Prison staff members had begun their testimonies by denying under oath that they were involved in hitting detainees, despite CCTV evidence showing the contrary.

“When shown the recordings, only some officers admitted to their actions, after repeated warnings from the inquiry panel that they were under oath.

“Others continued to downplay their conduct using euphemistic terms such as ‘sentuh’ (touch), or by citing intent such as ‘menakut-nakutkan’ (to frighten),” she said.

She also noted similarities between the testimonies of all five officers during the fourth week of the inquiry, which raised the possibility of collusion.

“All the officers cited utterances of profanities, and death or rape threats by detainees as the reason why they ‘lost it’ and thrashed the detainees.

“These near-verbatim patterns raise serious concerns of coaching or collusion.

“We note that there is sworn evidence that they had met together in a room to watch the recordings before they came to testify,” she said.

Specific law violations

Responding to concerns that lodging a police report about the alleged false testimonies would create an “investigation within an investigation”, Azura said the police investigation would not interfere with Suhakam’s public inquiry.

This is because the inquiry focuses on uncovering systemic failures through the assault in Taiping Prison and recommending critical prison reforms

On the other hand, she said a police investigation of a report focuses on specific violations of the law.

The Suhakam inquiry is held at its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and is expected to enter its sixth week when it resumes on Monday.

Another week of proceedings has also been scheduled from Aug 18 to 22.

The panel’s members are Suhakam chairperson Hishamudin Yunus and commissioner Farah Nini Dusuki.

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