Amnesty International has urged the government to “initiate an independent, impartial, prompt and effective investigation,” into the death of Kugan Ananthan.

“Only through a prompt and impartial investigation will people really know what happened to Kugan,” said Amnesty International’s researcher, Hazel Galang, in a statement yesterday.

“The government needs to show it is taking a strong stand against torture.”

kugan detainee death morgue scene 220109 Kugan, 22, died in police custody on Jan 20 after being detained for five days. He was being held under a two-week remand to facilitate investigations into several luxury car theft cases.

Galang stressed that cases like this violates the international human rights standards governing law enforcement officers.

“Police are failing to respect the rights of detainees in custody. The government must act on this, and prosecute police officers who have violated the human rights of these detainees,” she added.

Lack of commitment from gov't

Amnesty International also urged the government to implement the recommendations by the Royal Commission on the police force.

The Royal Commission was created in 2005 to enhance the operation and management of the Malaysian police.

The commission had proposed an independent external police oversight body to oversee complaints on police misconduct.

Also proposed were procedures for the conduct of police interviews.

These procedures include the use of tape recordings, video surveillance and access to lawyers for all suspects during interrogation.

The non-implementation, according to the statement, demonstrated the lack of commitment from the government to reform and to establish compliance with human rights standards as a norm in policing work in Malaysia.

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