KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) is calling on the government to set up an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to look into police custody deaths.
Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said the IPCMC should be set up immediately as was promised by Pakatan Harapan in its election manifesto and Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“This is what we are expecting from our leadership so that things can be done differently to fix the failures of the justice system under the previous government,“ she said at the launch of a Lawyers for Liberty report titled “Five faces: A story of police custodial deaths in Malaysia”.
“It is critical that the government sets up IPCMC or get Suhakam (Human Rights Commission of Malaysia) for the cases,“ she said, adding that four out of the five cases were questionable.
“We have to make sure that the lives of ordinary citizens are protected. We can’t accept more deaths in custody.”
Ambiga said the standard operating procedures and the inspector-general’s standing orders should be disclosed and transparent.
“It’s very important so that the public can know whether the police are acting within the scope.”
Fortify Rights legal director Eric Paulsen said pathologists must stop covering up for police and state the truth.
“We hope the Health Minister, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, can help to address this issue and monitor the pathologists,” he said.
“We want to meet up with the Home Ministry and Health Ministry to discuss this issue.”