Tuesday December 13, 2005

OCPD: Squats are standard procedure

BY CHELSEA L.Y. NG AND CECIL FUNG

KUALA LUMPUR: It has been a long-held practice for the police to order female detainees to perform ear squats in the nude, a senior police officer told the Commission of Inquiry into the controversy surrounding a video clip featuring a naked woman in the act.

Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim testified at the commission’s first sitting at the Sultan Abdul Samad building yesterday that as far as he knew, the practice had already been instituted when he joined the force 20 years ago.

ACP Mohd Hazam: ‘The reason for this is security’

Although ear squats were not prescribed in the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders, OCPD Standing Orders nor the Lockup Rules, ACP Mohd Hazam said he understood that it was a nationwide practice that had been effective in uncovering objects hidden in the armpits and private parts.

“The reason for this is security. We want to ensure no illegal objects or weapons are brought into the lockup especially in cases involving drugs, serious offences like murder and also arrests made at entertainment outlets.

“However, I advised my officers not to have any body contact with the detainees and to conduct the strip searches on a one-to-one basis in a room to prevent the detainees from being watched,” he said.

ACP Mohd Hazam said only policewomen were allowed to conduct strip searches on women and insisted that only those detained for drug-related offences, serious offences and also those arrested in entertainment outlets would be subjected to this procedure.

The commission was established after the video clip was made public in Parliament on Nov 24.

L/Kpl Wan Zawati: The policewoman in the video clip

The inquiry aims to ascertain the identity of the naked woman in the video clip, scrutinise the body search procedure as seen in the clip and investigate the police’s standard operating procedure, rules and regulations pertaining to the body search of detainees, and to recommend amendments and changes to such procedures.

C/Insp Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, the officer in charge of the Petaling Jaya police station where the provocative video was allegedly recorded, told the commission that detainees would be told to remove their clothes for visual inspection before being asked to perform ear squats.

Describing the practice as “a tradition”, he again told the commission that ear squats were performed to “expel any objects suspected to be hidden inside the anus or private parts.”

Asked if all female detainees including those caught for passport offences had to perform ear squats before being put into lockups, C/Insp Abdul Aziz said emphasis was on those caught for drug offences and serious crimes.

For those arrested at entertainment outlets, he said it was “a must” for them to perform ear squats.

C/Insp Abdul Aziz also identified the policewoman in the video clip as L/Kpl Wan Zawati @ Zalina Wan Ismail. However, he could not identify the naked woman in the video clip.

ACP Mohd Hazam said during his testimony that he first found out about the video on Nov 23 when he was shown photocopy images of the clip by a China Press reporter.

He said that the next day, he was shown the actual video clip by C/Insp Abdul Aziz on the latter’s cell phone.

C/Insp Abdul Aziz then told the commission that he found out about the video clip through one L/Kpl Suhaimi Nordin.

FIRST HEARING: Petaling Jaya deputy OCPD Supt Abdul Rahman Ibrahim escorting Dzaiddin, panel secretary Datuk Hamzah Md Rus, Lim, Kuthubul and Kamilia down the police headquarters after the hearing yesterday.

“L/Kpl Suhaimi told me that the recording was shown to him by one Kons Mohd Zulfatah at the end of June this year,” he said.

Both ACP Mohd Hazam and C/Insp Abdul Aziz identified the video when it was shown to them and members of the commission during the hearing.

ACP Mohd Hazam said the clip was most likely recorded at the Petaling Jaya police station and the sound of Quran recital heard in the video came from a surau located about 50m away.

Also called to testify yesterday was Kpl Zainol Nur Rashid Mat Arip, the police photographer who took pictures of the Petaling Jaya police station during investigations into the controversial video clip.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim led the proceedings with assistance from DPPs Nordin Hassan and Kwan Li Sa.

Lawyer S.N. Nair represented four female Chinese nationals who were listed to testify. The four women, in their 30s, recently lodged police reports stating that they had also been subjected to ear squats and other humiliating acts while under police detention.

The four-member commission comprises former Chief Justice Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah as chairman, former human resources minister Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek, former Bar Council chairman Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari and Wanita Umno legal aid bureau chief Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim.

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