| Friday February 23 Death caused by police brutality not ‘inflamation of lungs’ K Kabilan 4:12pm, Fri: A widow today alleged that her husband died in the police custody due to police brutality and not because of an inflammation in his lungs as claimed by the police. Suzana Md Aris said her husband Mohd Anuar Sharip’s death at the Selayang lock-up on Aug 18, 1999 was the result of the police physical harassment. She said this in her reply to the defence against her suit by the police who denied assaulting Mohd Anuar in custody and claimed that he had died because of an inflammation in his lungs. “I repeat that my husband died as a result of torture and abuse by the police and this is consistent with his autopsy report dated May 19, 1999 as well as photographs of his body,” she said. Suzana had filed a suit on May 19 last year over the death of her husband. She is claiming RM682,400 in damages with interests from the Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai, Gombak OCPD Massari Hashim, Gombak Crime Division chief Ishak Hussain and the government, whom she named as defendants. She claimed her husband, who was a member of Keadilan and a reformasi supporter, was taken away by police from their house at Batu Caves at midnight on Aug 10, 1999, but died eight days later while in police custody. In their defence, the defendants claimed that Mohd Anuar was arrested at his house in accordance with the law and denied conducting any search in the house. They added that Mohd Anuar was arrested for drug-related offences. They further claimed that Mohd Anuar was a drug addict, adding that this was confirmed by a urine check on him which allegedly revealed traces of morphine. Suzana has refuted this. Unlawfully detained Suzana maintained in her court documents, served by her lawyer P Uthayakumar on the defendants today, that her husband was unlawfully detained by the police who had also conducted an illegal search of their house without finding anything. She said that she was not aware of a second post-mortem report which the police relied on to say that Mohd Anuar had died of lung inflammation. “I have doubts on the existence of the second report and will rely on the first report which stated that Mohd Anuar had suffered from ‘multiple laceration lesions over the neck, chest, abdomen and back regions’ and that some parts of his stomach had clear ‘blue-black’ wounds suggesting that he was severely kicked or punched,” said Suzana. She said that the defendants were also liable for their failure to act promptly in taking Mohd Anuar to the hospital if he had died because of other causes apart from police brutality. |
| Monday February 12 Police: Death in custody due to ‘inflammation of lungs’ K Kabilan 2:52pm, Mon: An opposition party member and reformasi supporter had died in the police custody two years ago due to an inflammation in his lungs and not of police brutality as alleged by his widow. The police said this in their defence filed as a response to a suit by widow Suzana Md Aris on May 19 last year on the sudden death of Mohd Anuar Sharip at the Selayang lock-up on Aug 18, 1999. She claimed her husband, who was a member of Keadilan, was taken away by the police from their house in Batu Caves at midnight on Aug 10, 1999, and died eight days later, allegedly due to police brutality. Suzana is claiming RM682,400 with interests from the Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai, Gombak OCPD Massari Hashim, Gombak Crime Division Chief Ishak Hussain and the government, who are the defendants. In their defence, served on Suzana’s lawyer P Uthayakumar this morning, the defendants denied responsibility to Mohd Anuar’s death. Suzana had served her summons on the defendants on Dec 14 last year. Arrested legally They said that Mohd Anuar was arrested at his house in accordance to the law and denied conducting any search in the house. They added that Mohd Anuar was arrested for drug related offences. They said that Mohd Anuar was a drug addict, adding that this was confirmed by a urine check on him, which had traces of morphine. Suzana had claimed that her husband was unlawfully detained by the police, who also had conducted an illegal search in their house without finding anything. Suzana had also alleged that on Aug 18, the police had left a note at her mother’s house asking the family to contact the Rawang police chief as Mohd Anuar had died. To this, the defendants said that a police patrol car unit left the note at the house as no one was in the house at that time. They denied assaulting Mohd Anuar in custody and claimed that he had died of an inflammation of his lungs. Suzana had said that Mohd Anuar’s post-mortem report stated that he had suffered from “multiple laceration lesion over the neck, chest, abdomen and back region” and that some parts of his stomach had a clear “blue-black” wound suggesting that he was severely kicked or punched. |
| Thursday December 14 Widow files suit over husband’s death in police custody K Kabilan 5:27pm, Thu: A civil suit filed by a widow over the death of her husband, a Keadilan member, while in police custody last year was served on the government today. Suzana Md Aris served the summons of her suit to a representative of the Attorney-General at the AG’s Chambers this afternoon. She has named Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai, Gombak OCPD Massari Hashim, Gombak Crime Division Chief Ishak Hussain and the government as the defendants in the suit. Suzana was accompanied by a small group of Parti Rakyat Insan Malaysia (Prim) members. The yet-to-be registered party is helping to take up the matter on Suzana’s behalf. Prim pro-tem deputy secretary-general RN Rajah told malaysiakini that Norian, Massari and Ishak will individually be served separate summons tomorrow. In her suit, Suzana is claiming compensation of RM682,400 with interest from the defendants for the sudden death of Mohd Anuar Sharip, her husband, at the Selayang police lock-up on Aug 18 last year. In her statement of claim, Suzana said that Mohd Anuar was taken away by the police from their house in Batu Caves at midnight on Aug 10 last year and died eight days later allegedly due to police brutality. The statement was filed at the Kuala Lumpur Civil High Court by legal firm Kumar Hashimah & Co on May 19. Unlawful arrest She said in the statement that her husband was unlawfully detained by the police who also had conducted an illegal search of their house without finding anything. She also said that the family was not told the reasons for Mohd Anuar’s arrest, adding that she was only informed the next day that Mohd Anuar will be detained for 14 days before being brought to the Rawang magistrate’s court. However, she said, on Aug 18, the police had left a note at her mother’s house asking the family to contact the Rawang police as Mohd Anuar had died. According to Suzana’s statement of claim, her husband was fit and healthy and did not suffer from any disease prior to his arrest. She claimed that Mohd Anuar’s post mortem report stated that he had suffered from “multiple laceration lesions over the neck, chest, abdomen and back region” and that a certain part of his stomach had a blue-black bruise suggesting that he was severely kicked or punched. Suzana said that she and her two children, aged nine and three, suffered from “injured feelings, loss of consortium, bereavement, loss of income, loss of business and reputation” as a result of Mohd Anuar’s death. The defendants have eight days from today to respond to the suit. |