Categories: Malaysia
The "balai polis" video clip which was believed to have been recorded using a mobile phone, first shows a naked fair-skinned woman from the back doing the ear-squat while a policewoman with a headscarf watched. The woman then gets up and turns. Her breasts were visible before she donned her undergarments.
24 November
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok showed the "balai polis" video clip to ministers, MPs and the media at Parliament House. Among them were Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Backbenchers Club chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad. (NST)
Ketua Polis Daerah Petaling Jaya, Asisten Komisioner Mohd Hazam Abd Halim menafikan rakaman klip video itu diambil dari lokap Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPD) berkenaan. (BH)Wormie: First thing from a government servant is usually denial. Never mind if no investigations had been carried out. Just deny first, maybe it will go away!
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was very concerned about the assumption that Malaysia profiled Chinese nationals and had directed him (Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid) to go to China to reassure the Chinese Government that Malaysia always welcomed Chinese tourists. (NST)
Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said "It’s shameful that this sort of thing is happening in our country. This further strengthens our case that such incidents happen here. We will also put pressure on the Immigration Department to ensure foreigners are not given a hard time." (NST)
Wormie: Statements like this will only strengthened the public perceptions of abuse of power in the government service. What does the minister mean by " to ensure foreigners are not given a hard time"? To me it means that a lot of "necessities" and procedures are actually not needed but "created" by the government officials just to make things difficult for the foreigner. If this is true and known by the minister (from interpretation of what had been reported), then certainly the minister should have disciplined the government officials involved even before this strip-search incident. What had the minister been doing?
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged there would be no cover-up as there was absolutely no reason to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner. (NST)
On whether strip search was part of standard police investigation procedures, Najib said: "We do not indulge in that... There is no reason to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner."On Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid’s visit to China next week: "We will apologise when we are wrong. There is no harm in admitting our mistakes," Najib said. (NST)Wormie: The Deputy Prime Minister had already admitted that a "crime" had been conducted. And from what had been said the crime is "... to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner." This is because he refuses to comment whether strip-search is standard police procedures. If it is not then he should have said so, then the reason for the apology will be clear. The implication is that strip-search is standard police procedure!
Nazri berkata: "Kita tidak tahu sama ada wanita itu rakyat asing atau tempatan, tetapi latar belakang klip video itu menunjukkan ada seorang pegawai polis. Apa yang berlaku tidak sepatutnya berlaku dan jika mereka polis bermakna sudah berlaku penyalahgunaan kuasa." Mengulas lanjut rakaman klip video itu, Azmi berkata, beliau sedih melihat seorang anggota polis wanita bertudung memerhatikan tahanan melakukan ketuk ketampi sambil dia bercekak pinggang. (BH)
Police have classified the act of the uniformed personnel in the video clip as criminal intimidation. (Star)
26 November
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan promised a speedy investigation. He said police had the power to conduct strip searches. He had said police had identified the woman police officer shown in the video clip as a member of the district police headquarters but would only go after the person who recorded the video for outraging the modesty of the woman made to strip and perform ear squats. (NST)
Wormie: Contradictions and more contradictions. Yesterday it was reported in the Star that police had classified the act of the uniformed personnel in the video clip as criminal intimidation. Now he is not going to charge the uniformed personnel in the video clip (which was classified as criminal intimidation) but would go after the whistle blower! Further he had claimed that the person who had recorded the video as outraging modesty of the victim. True, the real intention of the person who recorded the video is unknown, but the fact that the person with the authority to change things ie the uniformed personnel, chose not to change things and committed this humiliating act. If there is abuse of power the she should be punished. Likewise if the person who recorded the video is found to be a pervert then charge him as well.
Teresa Kok took Musa to task today, echoing calls for the police to take action against those involved in the mistreatment of the detainees."The police are only concerned with looking for the pervert who did the recording. (NST)
The police were reportedly aware of the controversial footage before it was exposed (Malaysiakini)
MCA head of Public Service and Complaints Department Datuk Michael Chong said he received the video clip via MMS last Saturday (19 Nov). He then immediately called Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Yahaya Udin. They met on Tuesday (Nov 22) and Chong showed him the clip and discussed what action should be taken. (Star)Datuk Michael Chong: "I chose not to blow up the matter as the image of the police force had already been tarnished. By releasing it to the press, the whole force would be demoralised. All that matters to me was to get the culprit punished. This is not to say that Teresa Kok was wrong in what she did. It is just that we have different ways of solving problems." (Star)
MALTA: "Memalukan," demikian reaksi Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang amat marah dengan kejadian seorang wanita dipercayai rakyat China, yang dipaksa berbogel dan melakukan ketuk ketampi ketika dalam tahanan polis. Perdana Menteri memberi reaksi itu sebelum wartawan sempat menanyakan soalan sebaik beliau keluar dari lif hotel penginapannya untuk menghadiri perasmian Mesyuarat Ketua-ketua Kerajaan Komanwel di sini, pagi semalam. (BH)
"I know how it feels," says Anwar. Being a victim myself, I feel for these people, this was the response of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim to a question on police abuse. Having been assaulted by a former inspector-general of police, the ex-deputy premier understands the suffering of detainees who are abused. (Malaysiakini)
Wormie: "I know how it feels" - the words that may carry the most weight and causing the greatest harm to the image of the Police force. What can be worse than for a person who was previously assaulted by the police, now coming out to say that he knows how the girl who was strip-search must have felt. Because he had been there and felt the pain and the humiliation of it all (after all he was the deputy prime minister just a few days before when he was assaulted by the police).
Najip: "If the video clip is true, it can tarnish the image and integrity of the police and the Government." (Star)
The DAP has urged the Government to install CCTVs at all police lock-ups as a measure to check cases of police personnel meting out degrading, humiliating and inhumane treatment to detainees. In a letter to the IGP, the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Mohd Bakri's "loud silence" over the inhumane treatment meted out to the naked detainee had placed the entire force in a state of crisis. (Star)
Wormie: CCTV will not work. What is important is for the police personnel to have pride in their work and therefore appreciate the importance of having a certain acceptable image. Laws will be of no use if the people who are suppose to carried them out have no sense of responsibility and pride. You cannot instal CCTV throughout the building because there are certain nooks and corners which by their very nature be private.
The uniformed woman captured on a cellular phone video ordering a naked female Chinese national to do ear squats has been identified as a police constable from the district headquarters here in Petaling Jaya. It has also been confirmed that the incident occurred at the headquarters. Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan said police had recorded the constable’s statement and he had directed a no cover-up investigation into the incident. (Star)Wormie: Now it has been confirmed that the incident took place in the Petaling Jaya district headquarters. Why was Ketua Polis Daerah Petaling Jaya, Asisten Komisioner Mohd Hazam Abd Halim so quick to deny it just a few days ago. Is there a conspiracy for cover up?
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan also clarified that all detainees were required to strip and be searched before being sent to the lock-up. The police could also ask detainees to do squats.This is to ensure that they do not have any prohibited items, like sharp objects or drugs. (Star)
27 November
Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok was today called by police to have her statement recorded over the nude video clip taken at a district police headquarters lock-up. She maintained that the VCD was left on the doorstep of her office on Nov 24 after she had brought the case of the three Chinese nationals (who alleged that they had been forced to strip after being detained for alleged visa violations and then spied upon by male police personnel.) to the media (NST)
Lawyer Sankaran Nair, counsel for three Chinese nationals, who was a police officer with the rank of assistant superintendent for eight years before leaving the force, said there were never any instructions that all detainees should be subjected to a strip-search. He said under the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders, only in special cases were detainees ordered to strip for a search. "In the case of a drug-related offence, they are stripped and searched, but always with at least one officer of the rank of inspector or above present to ensure that everything is done according to the rules." (NST)
Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad: "The mere fact that the police had conducted such searches (strip search) previously as part of their SOPs does not make such searches legal, if in the first place there is no law to allow such searches." Furthermore, he said Standing Orders had no force of law. (NST)
"Ear squats and body cavity searches are not written in the Lock-up Rules 1953, which govern the custody of the prisoner," said lawyer M. Puravalen. (NST)
Wormie: Why are there such discrepancies between what was said by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan and the lawyers. They are totally at odds. Is it because the Deputy Inspector-General of Police is making some form of justifications for his personnel or is it because he is not clear of the Law?
Menteri Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid, berkata mangsa terbabit harus berani memberi bukti kes untuk mengenal pasti polis yang mengarahkannya berbogel, meskipun dia seorang warga asing yang memasuki negara ini secara haram. Setakat ini, kata beliau pihaknya belum dapat mengesahkan kebenaran rakaman Sistem Pesanan Multimedia (MMS) mengenai wanita yang didakwa menjadi mangsa kejadian terbabit kerana belum tampil memberi sebarang keterangan berhubung kejadian memalukan itu. (BH)
In Kuala Lumpur, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said stripping and asking foreign visitors to do ear squats should not happen at all in a civilised country (Star)
Selangor police chief Datuk Yahya Udin said last night police have questioned eight personnel from the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters in connection with the video clip filming. He said the eight were on lockup duties during the time of the allegedly incident but he declined to reveal the ranks and gender of the personnel questioned. (Sun)
28 November
The Government has extended its apology to Chinese nationals who have been mistreated by police while in detention recently. (NST)
Wormie: So now we know that all those previous charges of police mistreatment by detainees are true. I hope after this episode, the government will review all its police operating procedures so as to protect detainees and to improve on the tarnish police force image.
Demands are being made for Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar and his deputy, Musa Hassan, to resign over the infamous strip-search at the Petaling Jaya police station. (Malaysiakini)
Wormie: I think they should be sacked! Malaysians do not need such people who are quick to try to cover up any misdeeds and mislead the public. To quote Najip, if you are wrong apologise, there is no harm in admitting our mistakes.
"Musa's (Deputy Inspector-General of Police) statement (that police would only go after the person who recorded the video) is a bombshell as it is an open police defiance less than 24 hours after the pledge by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that there should not be any cover-up," Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement. (Sun)
Criminal Procedure Code (CPC)
Section 19: Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.
Section 20: When a person has been arrested and has to be placed in custody, the police may search the body of the person and place in safe custody all articles other than the necessary apparel found on the person, and detain anything believed to be the instruments or the fruits or other evidence of the crime until the person is discharged or acquitted.
Lock-up Rules 1953
Rule 7: Every prisoner shall be searched on admission and all clothing and property, other than one set of clothing, shall be removed, entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book, and placed in safe custody. Any monies or valuables sent for delivery to a prisoner shall be entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book and placed in safe custody.
Rule 8: A woman prisoner shall be searched only by a woman.
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