In response to growing numbers of custodial death cases, most recently 44-year-old S Balamurugan s/o M Suppiah, the Malaysian Bar has requested establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (“IPCMC”) to independently investigate complaints miscoduct and abuse of power. The following statement was releasead by the Malaysia Bar on 22 February 2017.
PRESS RELEASE
Source: The Malaysian Bar
The Malaysian Bar is aghast that the results of the second post-mortem conducted by Hospital Kuala Lumpur on 44-year-old S Balamurugan s/o M Suppiah (“Balamurugan”) released on 18 February 2017 confirms that the cause of death while he was in police custody was “coronary artery disease with multiple blunt force injuries”. The first autopsy carried out at the Klang Hospital had reportedly indicated that he had died of “heart problems”.
Balamurugan was arrested by the police on 6 February 2017, and was found dead at the North Klang district police headquarters on 8 February 2017. According to the police report lodged by his lawyer, at his remand hearing on 7 February 2017 Balamurugan was weak and unable to walk, had bruises on his face, was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and vomited blood. His lawyer also stated that he had been informed that Balamurugan had been assaulted by the police. Read more