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The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) has concluded its public inquiry into an incident at Taiping Prison in January 2025, and found that excessive force, delayed medical treatment, negligence by prison personnel, and other human rights violations were inflicted upon over 100 inmates and had directly contributed to the death of Gan Chin Eng. On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Dr Farah Nini Dusuki, one of the SUHAKAM commissioners who was on the public inquiry panel.
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00:10Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:14where we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day.
00:19The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, Suhakam, has concluded its public inquiry into a riot
00:25incident at Taiping Prison which happened in January of last year. The panel found that excessive
00:31force, delayed medical treatment and negligence, among other human rights violations, were inflicted
00:39upon over 100 inmates at Taiping Prison and had directly contributed to the death of Gan Chin Ng.
00:47Joining me on the show today is one of Suhakam's commissioners who was on the public inquiry panel,
00:53Dr Faranini Jusuki. Dr Faranini, thank you so much for being on the show with me. It's good to have
00:58you back and before we get into the findings of Suhakam's public inquiry, I was hoping maybe you
01:04can first walk us through the incident. It's been more than a year, I think more than 16 months that
01:09the incident has happened. So maybe walk us through Suhakam's involvement and the investigation that
01:15followed the riot incident in January of 2025. Okay, thank you Melissa for having me. Now first of all
01:23you mentioned the word riot just now. So I think a correction needs to be made there because when
01:28you say riot, it would mean that it is on both sides, right? And from our inquiry and looking at
01:34you know the CCTV footages, there was no riot as such. Yes, so what happened was the incident took
01:43place on 17th of January 2025 and naturally Suhakam received complaints from family members and which
01:51culminated into a memorandum officially submitted dated 3rd February 2025 and upon receiving that
01:59memorandum Suhakam, in accordance to the mandate under the Suhakam Act 1999, took up initial
02:07investigations by you know going to the site. They went to the site and then interviewed both sides of
02:15the prisoners, the prison wardens, authorities so to speak, you know the medical personnel, visited the
02:25sites, watched the CCTV footages and as a result of the initial investigations, decided to undertake a public
02:36inquiry which took place from June all the way till December of about, hang on, 29 sessions altogether
02:48where 50 witnesses were examined and about I think 127 exhibits were also scrutinized. Yeah. Okay, all right,
03:00let's talk about some of the key findings and the conclusions from the public inquiry. Can you walk me
03:07through some of the main human rights violations, some of the facts of the case? Sure. So in the end,
03:16we had six
03:17specific recommendations. So firstly, obviously there was evidence of use of excessive force because many
03:26um detainees were injured um few severely injured and of course uh one death and the excessive force was were
03:36used
03:37when and it was unwarranted in the sense that um pepper spray uh they were handcuffed, they were dragged,
03:44pushed, stepped on, beaten um and um and the use of batons uh shields and all that they all went
03:55beyond
03:56the SOPs uh which allowed those uh you know apparatus to be used really um and and again it was
04:05because of you
04:06the the the the use of the word riot I mean because the the expectation was that um the detainees
04:14were
04:14going to be uh you know going against uh the the authorities when the actual fact was that um
04:23how the event unfolded was really that there wasn't much time for anything else you know and and in fact
04:29um they were already
04:31handcuffed uh most of the time and yet um the beatings uh took place yeah okay so excessive force was
04:39one
04:39of the key human rights violations walk me through some of the others the other one is of course the
04:45conditions that triggered the situation uh well what happened was um there was a plan to move uh the
04:51detainees about a hundred uh slightly over a hundred of them uh from one prison uh to typing prison and
05:00they
05:00were not agreeable to that and negotiations were not successful however um there wasn't cooling off
05:08period you know and and and the fact that um that was really a trigger the fact that because the
05:16negotiations were were unsuccessful they didn't want to move and for obvious reasons too because um the
05:22block that they were supposed to move to um were actually in deplorable condition you know they knew for
05:29a fact that that place was not suitable for inhibition you know a jkr had actually um endorsed that it's
05:36no longer fit and the system the bucket system is still very much in use there and and they did
05:42basically
05:43didn't want to move there and and you know negotiations took place but like i said earlier it was not
05:48successful and yet um you know they were they were forced to actually and that that that that caused the
05:56unhappiness and uh triggered the uh well exchanges of uh you know uh unpleasant words so to speak and um
06:05of course the third uh violation was the failure of the prison management you know when all this took
06:11place um they are by right they should have you know they should be cooling period at least after the
06:17negotiation after they were moved from because the the the the beatings and all that took place at about
06:23at two different places in the prison you know one was at the block b where they were sort of
06:29like uh
06:30stationed before they were actually moved uh to to block e but that the the first uh set of
06:40beatings took place there then when they were waiting outside prior to you know and by that time they were
06:46already handcuffed so the beatings actually took place at two different places and and um and that was
06:53and there was no uh command you know proper command meaning to say that you you saw senior officers of
06:59the prison also there but it seems that you know everybody as though uh they were few that tried to
07:06sort
07:07of like uh cool down the the situation but but it wasn't it i mean the majority was actually uh
07:15pretty much endorsing it so yes so i think that was the the clear failure of the prison management at
07:22that
07:22time and no uh there was insufficient intervention as well um from those who are who are in a position
07:29to actually stop it and uh fourthly uh the fourth violation actually happened after the incident meaning
07:35to say that you know after the incident whereby uh uh upon that that particular stretch of period of about
07:42maybe two hours then after that of course it culminated in uh detainees sustaining injuries and all that
07:50and again violations took place there because they did not get immediate attention you know i mean
07:56they were a few of them actually had that blood stain uh shirts that they were wearing uh for significant
08:04period of time
08:05um few of them did not even uh you know get their medical uh uh you know the medical needs
08:12were not
08:13addressed immediately and and and and and that and that really is the the second stage of uh basic human
08:21rights violation the way they would the way that you know they were just given basic pain killers for
08:26example when they complain of pain and all that um the fifth was of course again uh the fifth violation
08:32was the
08:33treatment of the treatment of the detainee to say even you know the the object violation took place right
08:39after the incident but the treatment subsequent to the incident you know like days after and all that when they
08:44complain uh that they had difficulties um um some of them had difficulties uh because of the
08:51papistry incident you know affected their eyesight and all that and again um it was not properly addressed uh until
08:59you
08:59know they made the police when family members came and made police report on their behalf and all that
09:05um and the sixth and of course the most serious was the uh was what led to the death of
09:11gun chin um
09:14uh if i'm not mistaken he was 62 years old and throughout the inquiry he was known as by the
09:19witness
09:19also he was referred to as uncle gun so um you know um uh someone who's loved by many because
09:26he he's
09:27he has a kind of character that you know did not cause trouble but but obviously um although it was
09:33not him targeted but because you know when when things went out of control he was one of the those
09:40that that got bitten because based on the uh report of the post-mortem the cause of death was due
09:47to
09:47you know blunt trauma force and and of course uh which which culminated in him having breathing difficulties and
09:54again that was not addressed uh immediately when when you know when the other detainees was raising
10:01their concerns to the prison wardens uh so the although he was brought to the hospital the same
10:07day but not urgent enough you know and and and although the distance of the prison and the hospital was
10:12not very far for but for some reason you know the how it um how the the chronology of events
10:20showed that
10:22if he had been given you know immediate attention well probably he would have received the the
10:28necessary medical attention that he should have right um okay so the the report has come out come
10:34up with all these findings and it's very troubling disconcerting and disappointing to read uh that this
10:42is happening i'm sure this is not something new but can we talk a little bit about what happens next
10:48i understand that one of the prison officers has been charged for the death of uh uncle gun but
10:53what will happen next that surely we need to be thinking about um looking at the system
10:59more broadly what is what is what comes recommendation of course they are they are you know the panel
11:05identified we identified broader accountability issues you know such as weaknesses in the prisons
11:12uh department's uh department's internal investigation for example you know at the point when we were
11:16conducting the inquiry um there was no one you know uh was accounted for in any form of for form
11:24of
11:25disciplinary action for example at most uh change to another prison for instance no charges you see what
11:30was was troubling is that also on the part of the uh um on the part of um investigation and
11:36prosecution beyond the prison you see uh despite all of the evidence the clear cctv footages no one was
11:44charged up until now um i stand corrected um of you know of causing hurt of causing grievous hurt for
11:51example uh despite all the evidence that we saw uh only one was charged um and and and the processes
12:01for
12:01some it's more than one year you correctly put out that you know melissa that it's been more than one
12:05year but uh every time you ask during the inquiry when we ask why is it that you know no
12:10action has been
12:10taken despite this abject clear you know uh transgression of even internal procedures and they say oh um
12:18they didn't want it to be a double jeopardy because investigations are ongoing but you know um i mean
12:24i've been in criminal justice for more than 30 years i mean what takes so long for for
12:30investigation to actually uh you know pinpoint to to who is it that you should charge you know what
12:36actually should be taken next you see it's pretty straightforward but then uh again like like you've
12:42said this this uh exposes broader accountability issues and of course the the problem of overcrowding
12:48is not new and um the issue of reman now mind you these prisoners or rather detainees we can't
12:55even call them prisoners because they are detainees they are reman detainees meaning to say that
12:59they have not yet been convicted uh in fact we were referring they are being referred to as tmt
13:05tahanan makam tinggi because you see melissa when when you are charged with offenses punishable by death
13:11uh if the offense is related to drugs no bail will be allowed you know anything that that carries
13:20punishment more than five years no bail will be allowed and then that's just clear cut the offenses will
13:26become strictly unbailable so it means that until and unless your your trial is over you will be
13:33remanded in prison not even in lockups the other category we will be all those other offenses uh beyond
13:40those of drug offenses which of course include murder is the most common one now for this judges have
13:46um some discretion to a small category of persons you know if you are sick or infirm if you're below
13:5316 and
13:54if you're a woman but case law have established that this discretion is used sparingly simply for
13:59the reason that um the punishment itself is is a ticket for absconmen you see so that's why they are
14:07being remanded in prison but then again because of the you know of the maximum presumption of innocent
14:14until present guilt until until found guilty dish you know they should be given the benefit of the doubt i
14:20mean
14:20no justification allows you to treat them the way they were treated you see so yeah so um and and
14:30and
14:30we found other uh systemic issues like overcrowding for example systemic issues like what i've mentioned
14:36just now you know remand people being remanded uh for long periods of time on average from what we heard
14:43from uh the witnesses who are prisoners then you know who are detainees they are there as you know for
14:51as short as uh two years the one that we interviewed yeah two years to seven years it goes to
14:58say that you
14:58know a trial the processes can take that long and what if you are found if you are acquitted at
15:06the end
15:06you see so it's like you know for free you were actually detained in prison throughout those
15:13period so all the more reason that you know we have to properly safeguard their their rights you see
15:20and and protect their dignity because whatever they have done even if you found guilty everyone has basic
15:26human rights everyone has the right to be treated with respect and dignity but then again on the other
15:32hand we in suhaqam our role is to protect the human rights of all right so we we all we
15:39are also
15:39concerned about the basic rights of the authorities and the waters as well we know they are there and
15:46they are subjected to various uh provocations and all that from the detainees yeah so that's that is why
15:53this is a whole systemic issue that you know the prison situation must be changed you see um yeah and
16:01and
16:01you cannot have that kind of stress going around because for both sides definitely i think um more
16:09attention needs to be um highlighted in terms of the reform of the prison system dr faranini thank
16:14you so much for being on the show with me i really appreciate you sharing some of suhaqam's uh findings
16:19from the public inquiry that was dr faranini dusuki suhaqam commissioner we're going to take a quick
16:24break here and consider this we'll be back with more stay tuned
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