A policeman alleged by his colleague to have shown him a video clip of a nude woman forced to do ear squats at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters denied he had done so and that attempts to link him to the clip were aimed at 'victimising' him.

Testifying today before the independent commission tasked with probing the scandal, Constable Dzulfatah Saari dismissed the allegation categorically.

"No. I did not show him (the colleague) the video-clip," said Dzulfatah from the Petaling Jaya district police station.

He said on June 29 (the day the video was recorded), he had come back after 15 minutes to the Sri Manja police beat at about 3.45am after a drink. He added that he was on duty at the beat from midnight till 8am.

"I did not leave the beat until I completed my duty for the night," said Dzulfatah who was the first witness of day three of the inquiry.

Yesterday, Dzulfatah's colleague Lance Corporal Mohd Suhaimi Nordin - who was on duty together with him - told the inquiry that Dzulfatah had shown him the clip on his mobile phone.

A 'misunderstanding'

Asked on Suhaimi's statement that he (Dzulfatah) had left the beat at 3.30am and had only come back at about 7.30am, Dzulfatah said: "It is not true," he said, adding that he never went to the PJ district headquarters as claimed by Suhaimi.

"I never went back to the PJ police station [...] if someone claimed they saw me, that means I am being victimised,"he said.

Asked whether he was suggesting that Suhaimi was lying, he replied 'yes' saying he was not sure why Suhaimi would want to tell lies against him

Pressed further, he admitted the two of them had a misunderstanding in the past. "Maybe it was the past problem I had with him when I first joined the force. Just a little bit of a misunderstanding," he said.

Dzulfatah said he possessed two mobile phones but the one used in June which had the video clip in question was spoilt as it fell into a washing machine in October. To a question, he denied that he knew a mobile phone technician identified as Ong Yoong Keong.

At yesterday's hearing, Ong said a policeman had instructed him to download a video clip from a mobile phone memory card and transfer it to a laptop.

Reasonable suspicion

Dzulfatah was also ticked off by Dzaiddin when he made contradictory claims with regards to the mobile phone which he claimed was damaged in a washing machine

"Don't create story. If you really want to create story, then create properly, don't spin around the story," he said to laughter in the court room.

Meanwhile, Dr Zainab Shamsuddin, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist from Hospital Kuala Lumpur was called to provide a medical perspective on the effectiveness of ear-squats to dislodge hidden objects from the vagina or rectum of a detainee.

Police have maintained that detainees are asked to strip and do the ear-squats to ensure that no contraband items were taken into police lock-ups.

Zainab said squatting was an effective way to expel objects hidden in a detainee's private parts while ear squats could have the contrary results.

Another witness, Dr Ashraf Mohd Hashim, associate professor at the department of fiqh at the International Islamic University was asked his view on whether nude ear-squats was acceptable by syariah laws.

He said they were allowed in emergency cases. "But there must be reasonable suspicion for people to do that," he said, adding they would be cruel to the detainee otherwise.

The other members of the commission are former Bar Council chairperson Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari, former MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek, Wanita Umno Legal Aid Bureau chief Kamilia Ibrahim and Internal Security Ministry deputy secretary-general Hamzah Md Rus, who is the commission's secretary.

A total of 21 witnesses are expected to be called by Dec 23. The commission has 30 working days to wrap up its probe.