A Malaysian housewife has won more than 400,000 dollars in damages in an unprecedented court ruling over her husband's death in police custody, her lawyer said Thursday.
The High Court awarded the 1.4 million ringgit damages to Suzana Mohamad Aris, 43, on Wednesday over her husband's death in a police lock-up in 1999, nine days after he was detained on suspicion of being a drug addict.
Her lawyer P. Uthayakumar said it was the first time a Malaysian court had awarded damages over a death in custody.
The verdict came just two weeks after an UN investigations team found "virtually all" Malaysian detainees interviewed said they were subjected to torture to obtain confessions while in police custody.
"This case is significant and unprecedented as there were no previous case of death in police custody that has gone to a full trial and given a compensation by court," Suzana's lawyer P. Uthayakumar told AFP.
"This case is the first of its kind and it is a fair judgment as the judge took into consideration of the violation of fundamental human rights here, which is the right to life," he added.
According to the counsel, Suzana's husband, Anuar Sharip, was denied proper medical treatment and died from pneumonia and a lung infection.
"Let the message go forth from this place that any more deaths in police custody is one too many," judge Lee Swee Seng was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper, in handing down the verdict.
"The basic human right of a detainee to seek medical treatment should be immediately attended to. There should be no more loss of life in police custody as every life is precious," the judge added.
Local rights groups have long accused the police of being "trigger happy" and responsible for the unexplained deaths of detainees in custody, a claim that the government has consistently denied.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told parliament this week that a total of 147 detainees had died in custody from 2000 to 2009, while 279 suspects were shot dead by police.
The High Court awarded the 1.4 million ringgit damages to Suzana Mohamad Aris, 43, on Wednesday over her husband's death in a police lock-up in 1999, nine days after he was detained on suspicion of being a drug addict.
Her lawyer P. Uthayakumar said it was the first time a Malaysian court had awarded damages over a death in custody.
The verdict came just two weeks after an UN investigations team found "virtually all" Malaysian detainees interviewed said they were subjected to torture to obtain confessions while in police custody.
"This case is significant and unprecedented as there were no previous case of death in police custody that has gone to a full trial and given a compensation by court," Suzana's lawyer P. Uthayakumar told AFP.
"This case is the first of its kind and it is a fair judgment as the judge took into consideration of the violation of fundamental human rights here, which is the right to life," he added.
According to the counsel, Suzana's husband, Anuar Sharip, was denied proper medical treatment and died from pneumonia and a lung infection.
"Let the message go forth from this place that any more deaths in police custody is one too many," judge Lee Swee Seng was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper, in handing down the verdict.
"The basic human right of a detainee to seek medical treatment should be immediately attended to. There should be no more loss of life in police custody as every life is precious," the judge added.
Local rights groups have long accused the police of being "trigger happy" and responsible for the unexplained deaths of detainees in custody, a claim that the government has consistently denied.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told parliament this week that a total of 147 detainees had died in custody from 2000 to 2009, while 279 suspects were shot dead by police.
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