Sep 22, 2021
Suaram disputed Home Ministry’s custodial death counts
Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) questioned the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MoHA) statistics on custodial deaths in last week’s parliamentary response.
Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy said that in his parliamentary reply on Sept 15, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin indicated that six custody fatalities have happened in the year to date through August, while the organization has witnessed at least seven instances.
He said he was perplexed by the manner in which the Ministry of Health has reported the number of fatalities in detention. This is because, according to the provided response, the stated figure excludes a number of deaths that are clearly instances of deaths in custody.
In a statement, he said the immediate death of Sivabalan Subramaniam after he was apprehended by police from IPD Gombak, as well as the death of Umar Faruq while in the custody of IPD Klang Selatan, are instances of these unsolved cases.
Sevan further questioned if the MoHA’s definition was inconsistent with that used by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) and other nations such as the United Kingdom.
