Today it was reported that a detainee named Soh Kai Chiok died at the lock-up of the Bera district police headquarters early Wednesday morning.
Bera district police chief DSP Mansor Samsudin said initial investigations showed Soh’s death was not linked to any criminal elements based on the closed-circuit television (CCTV) recording.
I call on the police to appoint an independent committee to fully investigate the custodial death which outcome must be made public.
Mansor said that the victim was taken to the Triang Health Clinic and was referred to the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital (HOSHAS) in Temerloh. He also said that all lock-up procedures were adhered to in giving the victim his medication, food and drinks as well as seeing that he slept on time.
The public are entitled to ask why then Soh had become unconscious and died in the lock up?
If he had fallen seriously ill, surely he should have been admitted at a hospital.
The other question that needs to be answered by the Police is why can’t there be zero custodial death?
High Court judge Justice S. Nantha Balan in his recent 86 page judgment on the custodial death of lorry driver P Chandran has said, “Indeed, in a modern, matured and evolved constitutional democracy such as Malaysia, it is axiomatic and imperative there should be zero deaths of detainees in police custody”.
He had noted that there was an average of 17 deaths per year between 2000-2014 involving detainees based on the Human Rights Commission Report.
This is what it should be –zero deaths in the lock up. But yet what we have is obviously a systemic problem.
Every death is loss of a human life. It is not mere statistics. There should not be any custodial death at all.
I wish to reiterate my position that to tackle the custodial death issue, a two pronged approach is needed– the changing of police mindset and the implementation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission.