Malaysia’s Commissioner General of Prisons has admitted that Taiping Prison was negligent in handling inmate Gan Chin Eng, who died on Jan 17, following alleged human rights violations at the facility.
Testifying before a Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) public inquiry earlier today, Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Razak said former Taiping Prison director SAC Nazri Mohamed was transferred due to incompetence. Five other officers were also relocated.
It is alleged that on Jan 17, 60 prison officers beat, kicked, and stepped on over 100 inmates after they refused to move from Hall B, where they had been processed following their transfer the previous day from Batu Gajah Correctional Facility, to Block E.
Asked by Suhakam’s assisting inquiry officer, Simon Karunagaram, if he knew about Gan’s death, Abdul Aziz, 59, said he had read the situation report, which stated Gan suffered a heart attack, but he subsequently learnt that was not the case.
Simon: There was no oxygen tank, and the medical officers only checked his vital signs. There was a total of 50 minutes of waiting before Gan was sent to the hospital. In your opinion, how could this happen? Why was there no urgency to treat Gan?
Abdul Aziz: I saw Dr Navin (Dr V. Navin Esavik) on the CCTV footage attending to the inmate. He was the one who instructed Gan to be sent to the hospital. If we didn’t do our job, Gan wouldn’t have been sent.
Simon: There were two delays – 20 minutes and 30 minutes – before Gan was sent to the hospital. The hospital report states he was brought in dead. The post-mortem confirms this. Has the prison conducted an internal investigation or analysis of what happened? Dr Navin also said he went to the canteen to meet with Nazri while Gan was lying there.
Abdul Aziz: We will take action once the case is concluded. It could be the director’s (Nazri) fault. It’s ridiculous to wait so long. But brought-in-dead cases do happen. What can we do? In this case, the response was too slow.
Abdul Aziz, who was the last witness to testify at the inquiry, asserted that there have been many cases where inmates’ lives were saved due to the actions of prison doctors, but no one bothers about them, only the dead inmates.
Simon: It’s clear the actions were brutal, yet the prison wardens denied wrongdoing and claimed only minimal force was used. This appears to be treated as routine, with little fear of consequences.
Abdul Aziz: That’s not true.
Suhakam chairman, Datuk Seri Mohd Hishamudin Md Yunus, said: “Do you agree if I say Taiping Prison suffers from a lack of discipline? It’s not just one or two people who beat the inmates – it was many. It’s almost like gangsterism, and they’re not afraid of senior officers.”
Abdul Aziz: Maybe an issue of poor discipline or abuse of power. This is not the culture of Taiping Prison. If these incidents were frequent, we would receive reports from families, as inmates have access to phones.
Mohd Hishamudin: How do you feel about the incident?
Abdul Aziz: I’m upset and waiting to take action. The treatment of the inmates is wrong.
Mohd Hishamudin: Do you feel there is impunity?
Abdul Aziz: This doesn’t happen all the time, but I do feel challenged by it.
Abdul Aziz also said Taiping Prison had poor management issues, when told that the majority of the officers who testified said it had been years since they last attended any form of training, including anger management.
“The rules clearly state that everyone has to attend seven days of training a year. We have organised many sessions, including anger management, so they can’t say they have not had sufficient training,” said Abdul Aziz.
“If they testified that they had not attended training, it shows that they are lazy, and there is a management issue for not taking note of this.
“If they are unable to attend one course, there are many others throughout the year. Why didn’t the management monitor attendance for the mandatory seven days of training?”
Abdul Aziz also said that following the Jan 17 incident, inmates were denied visitation rights for two weeks, but no action was taken against the prison officers.
He said that was part of the protocol during an investigation.
Simon: Why was no further action taken against the officers?
Abdul Aziz: We will take appropriate action to punish those responsible after the police have concluded their investigation. I don’t want a case of double jeopardy – we punish them, and the police also take action.
Mohd Hishamudin: These are issues related to indiscipline and behaviour. There are two different types of actions to consider. Double jeopardy does not arise here.
Abdul Aziz: If someone is guilty, we will take immediate action. I give you an analogy. If an officer is guilty of smuggling drugs or tests positive, we can take immediate action. In the case of assault, we need to determine whether it’s a criminal offence.
Mohd Hishamudin: There are two levels of burden of proof – indiscipline and criminal behaviour. We have enough evidence from the CCTV footage for you to take action for indiscipline, as they clearly didn’t follow procedure by beating, kicking, and stepping on the inmates. The police can proceed with criminal behaviour where they have a higher burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
Abdul Aziz: The case has not gone to court yet. We will wait for the outcome of the investigation. It is beyond my control that the case has not been resolved yet.
Simon then read out a Jan 27 press release issued by the Prisons Department, which mentioned three times that the Jan 17 incident was due to provocation by inmates.
Mohd Hishamudin: It seems to me that the focus is on provocation, implying the prisoners were at fault. However, we’ve seen the CCTV, and it’s clear that the actions of the wardens were excessive. I feel the press release is biased and unfair.
Abdul Aziz: I don’t think that was the intention, but I agree that it was not a balanced statement.
He, however, insisted that the inmates did provoke the officers by refusing to move to Block E.
A total of 50 witnesses testified at the inquiry, which began on June 9. Submissions will be made on Nov 28.
