Squatgate - Police Tradition or Rules?

In November 29, news, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar defended 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, and I will answer this in Parliament tomorrow. I will quote under what section and what rules this is allowed," he said in the lobby of Parliament House.

Asked to comment on today’s 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.“ Noh said.



Yesterday, at the hearing by the Commission of Inquiry, Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim testified that it was only been a long-held practice for the police to order female detainees to perform ear squats in the nude. Petaling Jaya OCPD Mohd Hazam inform Dzaiddin and the commission members that as far as he knew, the practice had already been instituted when he joined the force 20 years ago. Although ear squats were not prescribed in the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders, OCPD Standing Orders nor the Lockup Rules, he said he understood that it was a nationwide practice.

Chief Insp Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, the officer in charge of the Petaling Jaya police station told the commission that detainees would be told to remove their clothes for visual inspection before being asked to perform ear squats.

Describing the practice as “a tradition”, he again told the commission that ear squats were performed to “expel any objects suspected to be hidden inside the anus or private parts.” Asked if all female detainees including those caught for passport offences had to perform ear squats before being put into lockups, Chief Insp Abdul Aziz said emphasis was on those caught for drug offences and serious crimes. For those arrested at entertainment outlets, he said it was “a must” for them to perform ear squats.

Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, on learning that even those nabbed at night-spots could be required to do squats in the nude, said: "This is an abuse."

So, did the police act according to Rules and Regulations or tradition? Can Nor Omar please quote under what section and what rules this is allowed?