X-marks and chains for suspects rile rights groups

(Malaysiakini) A recent vice raid in Penang sparked another bout of controversy over police conduct as civil society groups decry the way 30 foreign women were chained up and marked with pens after they were detained for alleged prostitution.

In the raid conducted at a high-class nightclub at a shopping mall in Pulau Tikus last night, eight local men and 30 foreign women - 29 Chinese and one from Vietnam - were arrested by a team of 19 police officers from Bukit Aman.

According to the Chinese language media, the raid was carried out after the officers spent a week going undercover at the club, which is believed to be well-known among locals.

Chinese newspapers however splashed photos of the detained women, showing them chained up in a group and with various markings on their bodies, including an X mark on the forehead of one of those detained.

In previous raids, Penang police normally put an identification mark on the hand of those detained, but the raid last night was conducted by federal police from Bukit Aman.

Bar Council Human Rights Committee chairperson Andrew Khoo slammed the police for abusing their standard operating procedures (SOP) and at the same time committing a gross violation of human rights.

He said the police's actions are in clear violation of the rights of arrested persons, and will only alienate the public further.

“You do not physically mark them ... you can detain them but you cannot mark them,” he said when contacted.

Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez was equally shocked when told of the pictures of the women being chained and marked, stressing that it is unfair to immediately assume that they were guilty of anything.

'Victimising the victims'

“I doubt this is standard procedure and if it is, the police must reveal that (it is). There must be an investigation into this to find out why the police acted as such.

“They may very well be victims of human trafficking... here you have a situation where they are victimising the victims,” she said.

Lawyers for Liberty's Faidah Nadwa Fikri branded the chaining and marking of the women as “very unusual and inhumane”, stressing that the women are merely suspects and have not even been convicted of any crime.

She pointed out however that this is a symptom of a systemic disdain for humanitarian issues in Malaysian society, where the mere act of getting arrested would put a person in a bad light.

“This is a cultural problem, and a problem of (not) understanding what exactly is rule of law.

“I see when people are arrested and brought into court, some are not even wearing slippers... this reflects how we treat people,” she said.

Irene took a similar line, but focussed on the need to stamp out the deeply-ingrained perception that women are the cause of vice.

“We have to address how morality is used to judge women... the system is fundamentally wrong,” she said, adding that Tenaganita will follow-up on this issue.

System needed to 'police the police'

Khoo said the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) - set up to replace the proposed Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) - is ill-equipped to manage the countless claims of police abuse. 

He noted that this leaves the public no choice but to continue to lodge their complaints directly with the police themselves, with little indication of a solution to the issue.

“But the complaints must keep coming because only by the loudness of the complaints can this issue be heard.”

Khoo added that the authorities must have a systematic way of dealing with police abuse, which he said make up the bulk of complaints against enforcement agencies, while at the same time increasing human rights sensitivity training for the men in blue.