Suaram’s right to justice coordinator Wong Yan Ke said the numbers issued by the home ministry were misleading.

“The figures seem to be manipulated as there have been huge discrepancies even in the parliamentary replies by the home minister in the last two years,” said Wong at the launch of the group’s Malaysia Human Rights Report 2021 today.

He said that in November 2020, the home minister disclosed 296 deaths in custody that year, but said in a separate, later reply that only 13 deaths were recorded for the same year.

Wong said underreporting of deaths in custody remained a concern because of the government’s failure to follow international standards on the definition of “death in custody”.

“For instance, if a detainee has been arrested but dies on the way to police custody, the case is not considered a death in custody under official statistics,” he said.

Wong said other reasons for underreporting were lack of inquests into deaths of detainees and no data transparency.

He also said Suaram had no reason to believe that the death in custody investigation unit (USJKT) established by police was impactful as it only “issues public statements but does not disclose reasons for the deaths and the progress of investigations”.

Wong said the unit also did not detail any disciplinary action taken against personnel involved in custodial deaths.

“The police still police themselves without transparency, urgency and independent oversight,” he said.

He said Suaram would continue to engage with USJKT for “meaningful change”.

On April 14, the 15th death in custody for the year was reported, involving a detainee at the Kajang police station lock-up.

The 45-year-old man died after he was “seen to be having seizures” by the police personnel on duty, Bukit Aman’s integrity and standards compliance department director Azri Ahmad said.

He died on the way to hospital.