Police Act According to Rules?

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar today came out strongly in defence of the police, saying their action was in accordance with the rules and regulations.

"I dare say everything was done following the rules," he said in response to the public outcry over a video clip which shows a Chinese woman made to perform ear squats in the nude in a police lock-up."

"There are lock-up rules and Standing Orders."

Asked to comment on reports which quoted lawyers as saying that strip searches and body cavity searches were illegal under the Lock-up Rules 1953 and the Criminal Procedure Code, he said:

"We say we follow the rules and the lawyers say we don't. If the law does not provide for it, ask the lawyers to sue the Government and summon the police. Everybody has his own opinion, but if we don't conduct thorough checks and drugs are found in the lock-up, they will blame the Government and the police."

Keadilan president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said Musa’s statement that stripping detainees and making them do various acts was "standard operating procedure" was shocking and regrettable.

She said a similar incident happened to a Malaysian woman, Norazimah Nor, 30, six years ago, where she was asked to squat in the nude for being involved in a public assembly.

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has this to say when commenting on allegations by Chinese nationals who claimed they were ill-treated by Malaysian Immigration officers in Penang recently:

"I was informed that the Chinese media has been playing up these issues. It shows Malaysia’s image is becoming worse over there."

The allegation of mistreatment and abuses by the police include:

Forced to bark like dogs and croak like frogs, fed with rice that had maggots, and beaten when orders were disobeyed.

In Azmi's opinion: "I don’t think the Immigration officers were so stupid as to have done that."

The complaints by 19 Chinese nationals were reported today by a local Chinese daily, The China Press, which had lifted the news from a newspaper in China, the Fujian Metro Straits. The Chinese nationals visited Penang in September, but were arrested and detained for 14 days at the State’s Immigration depot. They claimed that during their detention, they were made to lie on a cement floor and mimic the sound of dogs and frogs, walk barefoot on stones, made to wake up at 4am and forced to take cold showers. They also alleged that they were given salted fish with rice that had maggots to eat. They said they were beaten with batons when orders were not followed, were told to buy new air tickets back to China even though they already had return ones, and were sent back wearing only pyjamas and slippers.

Azmi said Immigration officials never carried batons, and that the department never issued pyjamas or slippers to detainees. He said the media in China had been sensationalising negative reports about Malaysian authorities mistreating its nationals, especially after news about the video clip of a woman made to do ear squats in a police lock-up.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has been upset by revelations of what took place at the Petaling Jaya police station, announced the plan to set up the independent body today.

An independent body will be set up to investigate the case where a Chinese national being made to do squats in the nude in a police station. The move will placate growing demands for a thorough and transparent probe into a case that has become an embarrassment for the police and the country.It also signals a desire by the Government to obtain advice from prominent and respected citizens on the most troubling aspect of the case — the standard operating procedure by police to strip female suspects and make them perform squats to expel hidden objects in their private parts.