Eliminating Deaths & Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT) and the North-South Initiative said a 63-year-old Pakistani detainee, who held a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees card, died on Feb 17, with bruises found on his body.
“The family members were not informed about the death by police or prison officials. They were only told that the dead man was at the Sungai Buloh mortuary on Feb 19 by another Pakistani national.
“Initial results from the post-mortem found that he passed away due to a heart attack. The post-mortem also indicated several injuries to his hands and feet,” the non-governmental organisations said in a statement today.
The NGOs said that according to the family members, the police officers who detained the deceased did not inform them why he was arrested.
FMT has confirmed that the man was arrested in Rawang in September.
They added that while the family thought the man was at the Hulu Selangor police station’s lock-up, he was brought to the magistrates’ court in Kuala Kubu Bharu. He did not have a bailor present and was remanded at the Tapah Prison.
He was transferred after a few weeks to the Sungai Buloh Prison, where he died after being infected with Covid-19 and other medical conditions.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol which guarantees the rights of those given asylum in a country.
Refugees are considered undocumented migrants under the 1959/1963 Immigration Act and there have been numerous reports of refugees being extorted and detained by enforcement agencies.
Calling the death “devastating and heartbreaking”, Tenaganita executive director Glorene Das questioned how many other deceased migrants, refugees and Malaysians had suffered incidents of physical violence under remand or during investigation.
Noting that deaths and torture in police custody or detention camps had become “common news” in Malaysia, Das said her NGO had received many reports of sudden death of migrants and refugees over the years, but there had been no follow-ups when reports were filed.
“Many of these reports are overlooked because the person who died in custody is usually undocumented. Therefore, there is no importance given to further investigations,” she said in a statement.
“How can we allow such incidences to continue? Have human lives become so meaningless to us? We want answers and we want action taken against those who were responsible.
“Their lives need to be respected, not ended by the authorities who were supposedly protecting them.”
FMT has reached out to prisons director-general Zulkifli Omar for comment.