Speaking to FMT, Suzana Norlihan Alias said she was at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Wednesday to meet a client at the court lock-up when two detainees there with her client made these claims.
“I saw one of them not looking well. When I asked him what happened, he said he and his friend were beaten by a warden on Tuesday morning,” said Suzana.
“They told me they were unrepresented. I was shocked when they informed me the warden had beaten and caned them on the leg so hard that they had difficulty walking.
“I ask the prison authorities to take immediate action. Bullying and abuse by prison staff has to stop.”
When contacted, an official at the Sungai Buloh Prison’s secretariat unit urged Suzana to lodge a police report over the matter.
Stating that the prison officials are aware of the allegations, which Suzana had also posted on her Facebook account, he said they “do not have anything official” at this point.
“We invite her to lodge a police report or to come here to lodge an official complaint so we can look into this,” he said.
“Even if there is no police report, if her claims are reasonable, we will look into them.”
Suzana’s claims come less than a month after families of 21 detainees alleged that their loved ones were abused by prison officials at the Jelebu Prison in Negeri Sembilan on April 8.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference on May 1, several of the detainees’ family members claimed that the detainees — who were handcuffed in pairs — were beaten with plastic pipes, sticks, chairs and other objects by prison officials.
They also claimed their private parts were sprayed with chilli oil.
FMT understands that 17 police reports had been lodged by the detainees’ family members, with an investigating officer from the Jelebu police station taking statements from six of the 21 detainees.
The detainees were arrested in 2019 under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) after being suspected of being involved in organised crime.
Suzana’s brother has been behind bars since 2002 and the 45-year-old said her brother had also suffered abuse at the Sungai Buloh and Taiping prisons.
“My brother is on death row, and he told me he has been beaten by prison wardens before. That’s why I believe those two detainees whom I met,” she said.
“When it comes to things like these, I just want people to know what’s going on.
“There’s right, and there’s wrong. And this is wrong.”