“The Subang Jaya police stations seem to be killing grounds for suspects. The USJ 8 lockup cells have seen two deaths in 2013.
“Chan Chin Te died this year on 14 January; adding to the list will be (Japanese national) Nobuhiro Matshushita. “While on 20 January 2009, Kugan Ananthan died in Taipan Police Station, Subang Jaya,” said the Stop State Violence Movement in a statement today.
“Similar to those police stations, the Dang Wangi police station has also seen more blood on its hands last year within a duration of four months,” it added.
The group cited the 2012 deaths of Chandran Perumalu (September 10), Wong Tip Ping (November 29) and Nagarajan (December 24).
Human rights NGOs have previously noted that in the first half of this year alone eight deaths in custody have taken place.
The latest three occurred within under two weeks: N Dhamendran (May 21), R Jamesh Ramesh (May 26) and P Karuna Nithi (June 1).
Matshushita’s death on Saturday brings this year's tally to nine.
“Before even the waters calms down on the three deaths in police lockup within 11 days, we were shocked to hear of another death in police lockup,” said the Stop State Violence Movement
Not first foreign death
The group noted that Matshushita was not the first foreigner to die in Malaysian custody, citing a case last year that it said had gone under the radar.
“To be factually right, according to Suaram's monitoring, Malaysia has gone international last year itself in custodial death. “Miss Tienthong Chaipaniya from Thailand died in Taman Johor Jaya police station on Sept 7, 2012. The case goes unseen by the public,” said the coalition comprising NGOs such as Tenaganita, Lawyers For Liberty and Suaram.
In Matshushita’s case, the movement warned the police not to be quick in declaring the cause of death.
“The Stop State Violence Movement would like to remind the police force not to (issue any speculative) information to the public, as this could be misleading,” it said.
It
reminded that in Dhamendran’s case the police were quick to tell the
public that the cause of death was “breathing difficulties” only to be
contradicted later by the pathologist, who found that the victim had
been beaten to death.“In accordance to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), Section 334 clearly states that a magistrate shall in the case of a death in the custody of the police; hold an inquiry into the cause of death.
“Please stop speculating and assist for the rule of law to take place.”
Stop State Violence Movement also repeated the demand for the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to “end these serious human rights violations”.
“The failure to ensure effective mechanisms to hold the Malaysian police accountable highlights a serious lack of political will by the government to take genuine steps to reform the police force in this country,” it said.
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