Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Malaysia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Malaysia. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Malaysia U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/malaysia/
[accessed 28 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT No law specifically
prohibits torture; however, laws that prohibit “committing grievous hurt”
encompass torture. More than 60 offenses are subject to caning, sometimes in
conjunction with imprisonment, and judges routinely mandated caning as
punishment for crimes, including kidnapping, rape, and robbery, and
nonviolent offenses, such as narcotics possession, criminal breach of trust,
migrant smuggling, immigration offenses, and others. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Physical Conditions:
Overcrowding in prisons and immigration detention centers, particularly in
facilities near major cities, remained a serious problem. According to the
Home Ministry, 20 of the country’s 37 prisons were overcrowded. In Selangor,
Kuala Lumpur, and Kelantan, prisons were overcrowded by 45 to 50 percent.
According to World Prison Brief, as of December 2019 the country had 75,000
inmates in 52 prisons designed to hold only 52,000. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Arbitrary Arrest:
Authorities sometimes used their powers to intimidate and punish opponents of
the government. Activists and government critics were often subjected to
late-night arrests, long hours of questioning, and lengthy remand periods,
even if they were not ultimately charged with an offense. Pretrial Detention:
The International Center for Prison Studies reported that pretrial detainees
comprised approximately 27 percent of the prison population in 2018. Crowded
and understaffed courts often resulted in lengthy pretrial detention,
sometimes lasting several years. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/malaysia/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 15 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? Torture and abuse
in police custody remain problems, and prisons are often overcrowded and
unsafe. A number of criminal offenses can be punished with caning, including
immigration violations. Take over latest
‘torture’ complaint, Bukit Aman told Minderjeet Kaur, FMT News,
Kuala Lumpur, 19 May 2019 www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2019/05/19/take-over-latest-torture-complaint-bukit-aman-told/
[accessed 19 May 2019] Visvanathan alleged
that on the same day, the police assaulted his client by first handcuffing
him to the back, before beating him on the neck area. He said the police
officers also kicked, punched and stripped his client naked. “They smeared
pounded chilli all over his body, especially his
private parts,” he was quoted as saying. Visvanathan alleged
that Mahedran was also tasered
and laid on ice cubes naked. He said the torture
went on for 13 hours daily while Mahedran was under
police remand. According to MalayMail Online, he also alleged that the officers
threatened Mahedran that they would target his
mother and “would not hesitate” to rape his sister. Probe 'fatal
torture' in Juru camp claim, authorities told Malaysiakini, 17 August 2016 www.malaysiakini.com/news/352656 [accessed 17 August
2016] The Malaysian
authorities must immediately investigate claims that detainees were tortured
to death at the Juru immigration detention centre, Amnesty International Malaysia said. This is after a
detainee who was detained there told The Cambodia Daily they saw other
detainees beaten to death in the camp in Penang. "These are serious
allegations and the authorities must commence investigations urgently,
especially when this is not the first time allegations of torture and deaths
in detention have been made,” AI Malaysia executive director Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu said. At least 13
detainees detail abuse and torture Amnesty
International AI, 16 March 2016 - Index number: ASA 28/3642/2016 www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA2836422016ENGLISH.pdf [accessed 7 January
2019] At least 13 detainees who were arrested for suspected security
offences under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA),
have reported torture and other ill-treatment by the authorities in various
prisons across Malaysia. They remain at serious risk. In January 2016,
the human rights organisation Suara
Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) reported receiving letters written by seven
detainees, including one woman. In the letters the detainees detailed physical
and mental abuse including being beaten up and stepped on, forced to strip,
crawl like a dog and forced into performing sexual acts in the presence of
the authorities and their family members were sexually harassed. In February 2016,
six other men, also detained under the SOSMA, sent letters to SUARAM
reporting cruel and inhumane treatment and torture during interrogations,
including being held at gun point, and being drenched in cold water and left
in an air-conditioned room. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] MALAYSIA POLICE ABUSE AND
IMPUNITY
- New cases of police torture of suspects in custody, in some cases resulting
in their deaths, and excessive use of force in apprehending suspects
continued to be reported in 2014. At least 10 suspicious deaths in police
custody were recorded in the first nine months of the year. Human Rights
Watch’s report No Answers, No Apology:
Police Abuses and Accountability in Malaysia released in March found a
pattern of police impunity and a lack of effective external oversight. Rather
than following up on the findings, police officials dismissed them and would
not consider the report’s substantive recommendations for improving rights
performance and accountability. Court upholds
torture victim's award M. Mageswari, The Star, Putrajaya, 30 April 2014 [accessed 1 May
2014] The Government and
police have been ordered to pay more than RM300,000
to a lorry driver who was tortured during interrogation. Prabakar had claimed that
he was beaten up and splashed with hot water by seven policemen after his
arrest in Sri Hartamas in December 2008. In the suit, Prabakar claimed that he was arrested by police at a car
park in Sri Hartamas at 9.30pm on Dec 23, 2008, and
was interrogated by seven policemen at the Brickfields district police
station from 10pm that day until the next morning. POLICE TORTURE
& COVER-UP: 52 injury marks found on Dharmendran's
body Malaysia Chronicle,
1 June 2013 www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=107811:of-torture--pain-dharmendran-52-injury-marks-injury-inflicted-by-police-interrorgators&Itemid=2 [accessed 1 June
2013] malaysiansmustknowthetruth.blogspot.com/2013/06/police-torture-cover-up-52-injury-marks.html [accessed 28 August
2016] The full
post-mortem report of N Dharmendran, who was beaten
to death while in police custody, painted a horrific picture of brutality and
torture in Malaysian cells. "Dharmendran's body was found, handed over to the hospital
with bleeding from staples embedded in both ears. He was beaten around the
abdomen area, navel, hip bone, loins and lower areas, kidneys, under the armpits,
on his feet, bottom of his soles, every inch of his body. The entire chest
area was blackened from the beatings and there were severe bruises on his
shoulders that indicated he was or on the floor and the beating came from
above." "The bruises
were quite big, these are not small
spots, and inconsistent with what we saw on the body - huge patches of
bruises, so the beatings would have to be quite heavy for the bruises to be
so large." Surendran also pointed to
bruises around the wrists that indicated Dharmendran
had been handcuffed and unable to defend himself. Backsliding on
Rights Human Rights Watch,
Bangkok, 1 February 2013 www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/malaysia-backsliding-rights [accessed 5 February
2013] Malaysian police
appear to routinely violate the rights of persons in custody, Human Rights
Watch said. Police personnel have employed unnecessary or excessive force
during demonstrations, while carrying out arrests, and in police lockups.
Deaths in custody, routinely attributed to disease, go uninvestigated,
suspects are beaten to coerce confessions, and criminal suspects die in
suspicious circumstances during apprehension by police. Alleged police abuses
go uninvestigated. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 ARBITRARY ARRESTS
AND DETENTIONS
- The government repealed the Internal Security Act (ISA), which allowed for
indefinite detention without charge or trial, and replaced it with the new
Security Offences (Special Measures) Act in July. Under it, the police were
allowed to detain suspects incommunicado for 48 hours, and for up to 28 days
without charge or judicial review. As of November, at
least 14 detainees, all foreign nationals, were held under the ISA until
their detention orders expired, despite repeal of this law. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=malaysia+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 7 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/malaysia [accessed 5 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] There is no
constitutional provision specifically banning torture, and police have been
known to torture prisoners and use excessive force or inhumane tactics in
conducting searches. Police reform has been inhibited by resistance at the
highest levels of the police force and, according to many, by the attorney
general. In August 2007, a former chief of police and member of the 2005
commission on police reform, Hanif Omar, published
a scathing statement on police practices and the government’s failure to
resolve the problems as crime soared. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61615.htm [accessed 5 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61615.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – No law specifically
prohibits torture; however, laws that prohibit "committing grievous
hurt" encompass torture. Unlike in 2004, there were no reports of
torture by police. According to the government, every report of abuse of
prisoners is investigated; however, the government routinely did not release
information on the results of internal police investigations, and whether
those responsible for abuses were punished was not always known. In January 2004, 31
persons released from detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) claimed
that police subjected them to physical and mental abuse during the initial 60
days of their incarceration. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Malaysia", http://gvnet.com/torture/Malaysia.htm, [accessed
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