Amnesty International Report 2005 - Malaysia

Covering events from January - December 2004

A Royal Commission of Inquiry was set up to examine reported patterns of police abuses and make recommendations for institutional reform. The release of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who had been convicted of sodomy after charges were filed against him that were politically motivated, helped to rebuild public confidence in judicial independence. At least 84 suspected Islamist activists remained held without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). An array of restrictive laws curtailed enjoyment of freedom of expression, association and assembly. Suspected undocumented migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees were at risk of ill-treatment and poor conditions while detained prior to deportation. At least seven people were sentenced to death. Thousands of convicted prisoners, mostly undocumented migrant workers, were caned.

Background

In March the United Malay National Organization (UMNO)-led Barisan Nasional (National Front) ruling coalition won an emphatic election victory.

Addressing violations by police

An independent Royal Commission of Inquiry, with a one-year mandate, investigated patterns of abuses by police, including excessive use of force and unlawful killings during arrest of criminal suspects; torture and ill-treatment; and deaths in custody. Commenting on preliminary findings, the Commission's chairman stated that the inquiry found ill-treatment by police and poor conditions in police cells. He called for reform of remand laws and strengthening of police internal disciplinary procedures.

In April, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) released a report of its public inquiry into allegations of police abuses in Kundasang, Sabah, in 2003. It found severe overcrowding and inhumane conditions in police cells, and police misuse of remand laws to detain suspects longer than necessary.

• A body believed to be that of 24-year-old Francis Udayapan was found in a river in April. He had been arrested on suspicion of theft of a mobile phone in Kuala Lumpur. Police said he drowned after escaping, but relatives said he had been beaten and died in police custody. After public protests, a coroner's inquest was opened in August and was continuing at the end of 2004.

• In September human rights lawyer P. Utayakumar was arrested for allegedly defaming the police by saying that police officers had been involved in an assault on him in May. The lawyer had previously received death threats apparently connected to his high-profile work on behalf of victims of police abuses.

Detention without trial under the ISA

The ISA continued to allow for detention without trial for up to two years, renewable indefinitely, of anyone considered by the authorities to be a potential threat to national security or public order. The ISA fails to provide precise definitions or criteria for determining which individuals pose a threat. Attempts to seek judicial redress through habeas corpus petitions continued to prove ineffective. During an initial 60-day period of "investigative detention", detainees were held incommunicado and denied access to lawyers, family members and independent doctors. In the course of extended police interrogations, they remained at risk of physical intimidation, humiliation and intense psychological pressure at times amounting to torture.

The authorities failed to act on recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) in 2004 for the repeal of the ISA and its replacement by a comprehensive law balancing national security concerns and respect for human rights.

In July Suhakam Commissioners inspected police remand centres after receiving complaints from ISA detainees of ill-treatment and torture during their initial 60-day detention.

At least 84 alleged Islamist activists reportedly remained in detention under the ISA. They included 75 detainees accused of association with al-Qa'ida and the south-east Asian network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was allegedly linked to the 2002 Bali bombings, as well as 12 alleged members of the Malaysia Mujahidin Group (Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, KMM). At least 10 men were also under ISA detention for alleged passport forgery or other offences.

• In March, 16 alleged KMM detainees staged a three-week hunger strike to protest against the government's renewal of their two-year detention orders, despite the reported recommendation by the ISA Advisory Board for their release.

• In May, detainee Mohamad Abdul Rahman, an Indonesian national with permanent resident status in Malaysia suspected of links with JI, was deported to Indonesia a few hours before his scheduled habeas corpus hearing.

• Five alleged supporters of KMM or JI were released in July and a further four in November. However, they were subjected to restriction orders curtailing their freedom of movement.

The judiciary and restrictive laws

A number of judicial rulings assisted a gradual restoration of public confidence in the independence of the judiciary and in its willingness to scrutinize and check politically motivated prosecutions under restrictive laws. However, such laws continued to impose unjustified curbs on the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly of opposition figures, journalists and other members of civil society.

• In April the High Court upheld the appeal of youth leader Mohamad Ezam Mohamad Nor, a member of the opposition People's Justice Party, against his 2002 conviction under the Official Secrets Act (OSA). He had been found guilty of distributing classified documents about official corruption to journalists in 1999. In the appeal hearing, the judge stated that the prosecution had failed to establish adequately that the documents were classified, and that a specific section of the OSA was "draconian and repressive".

• In September the Federal Court upheld the final appeal of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his adopted brother, Sukma Darmawan. Both men had been convicted of sodomy in 2000. The Court found that a key prosecution witness was unreliable and that Sukma Darmawan's "confession" had not been made voluntarily.

Opposition parties and civil society groups continued to express concern that police were not impartial in granting permits for public assemblies and used unnecessary or excessive force when dispersing demonstrations.

• In February, without giving sufficient warning, police fired water cannon laced with chemical irritant to disperse a crowd gathered at the national police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to present a memorandum on police brutality.

Ill-treatment of migrant workers and asylum-seekers

There were periodic reports of ill-treatment of undocumented migrant workers and asylum-seekers in detention camps and during deportation. Conditions in detention camps, including the provision of adequate medical care, food and clean water, failed to meet international standards. Fears that conditions would worsen due to increased overcrowding mounted after the government announced plans in July to arrest and deport over 1.2 million suspected "illegal immigrants" by the end of 2005. Concerns about the planned mass deportations included the lack of fair individual assessment procedures for detained migrants, serious weaknesses in fair trial safeguards for those prosecuted under the Immigration Act, and inadequate protection for more vulnerable detainees, including women and children.

With the authorities repeatedly failing to distinguish between people seeking asylum (mostly from Myanmar and Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in Indonesia) and suspected undocumented migrant workers, asylum-seekers and refugees remained at risk of detention and refoulement. In April, for example, 30 Burmese nationals were arrested outside the Kuala Lumpur office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as they sought to register as asylum-seekers. In July, at least 60 asylum-seekers, mostly Acehnese, were arrested in Selayang and sent to Seminyih immigration detention camp. At least 20 were subsequently reported to have been "voluntarily" repatriated. However, as the year progressed, recognition by police and immigration officials of documentation provided by UNCHR to asylum-seekers appeared to improve. In November, the government announced that Rohingya refugees (an ethnic minority from Myanmar) would be issued identity cards allowing them to stay and work in Malaysia.

Death penalty and corporal punishment

At least seven people were sentenced to death, mostly for drug trafficking offences. No executions were reported.

Caning, a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, was carried out throughout the year as an additional punishment to imprisonment. Thousands of people found guilty of breaches of the Immigration Act were among those caned.