'MACC officers punched and kicked me'

While the dust has yet to settle on the Kugan Ananthan case, another allegation of abuse under detention has emerged.

This time around, it is not the police but rather the newly-formed Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). And the complainant is an Umno Maran division committee member.

In his police report filed at the Damansara police station yesterday, Halimi Kamaruzzaman, 46, claimed that he was assaulted during his four-day remand in Kuantan.

He alleged that three MACC officers, including the head of a unit, had punched him in the head, stomach and shoulder. He also claimed that he was kicked in the ribs and knee.

"I was also forced to strip naked, lie and roll on the floor. An officer choked me against the wall. They threatened me that my wife would also be arrested and be asked to strip if I did not agree to make a confession that I handed money to Umno members," he alleged.

"I had to do squats, sing Negaraku and the Umno song many times and the officer threatened to burn my private part with a cigarette," he said.

According to him, the MACC officers wanted him to confess that Umno supreme council member Norza Zakaria was involved in money politics.

Norza is a close associate of Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who is also Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's son-in-law.

'Just like Abu Gharib'

Halimi's ordeal started when he surrendered to the MACC Temerloh at about 6.30am on Jan 23.

There he was interrogated by five officers until 10am and was later taken to the MACC Pahang headquarters in Kuantan.

The Umno member claimed that throughout the alleged abuse, the closed circuit television camera placed in the room had been disconnected.

Describing his experience as similar to what Abu Gharib detainees faced in Iraq, Halimi claimed that he had informed a magistrate the next day about the alleged abuse.

He said the magistrate advised him to lodge a report with the Public Complaints Bureau upon his release.

Despite the alleged abuse, Halimi said he refused to confess and implicate Norza.

Contacted later, MACC director of investigations Mohd Shukri Abdull said the commission would allow the police to investigate the matter and declined to elaborate.

The Kuantan MACC investigating officer refused to comment on the matter while his superiors were away on a meeting.

Norza, when contacted, said he was not aware of the police report and said he could not comment further as he was under investigation.

It has been widely reported that MACC is investigating the allegations of money politics involving an Umno man aspiring to be elected to the party's supreme council.

This led to the politician coming forward to have his statement recorded by the commission and scores of other arrested in Temerloh and Kuantan.

Only Utusan Malaysia had named the politician under investigation to be Norza.

See police report