source: Malaysiakini
published: 29 April 2014

The counter is rising for cases of death in custody in Malaysia – now averaging more than two deaths a month!

This time, a 56 year old drug addict who was arrested on April 22 and detained at the Bayan Baru lock-up was pronounced dead when he was on the way to the Penang Hospital to seek treatment.

This is the second death in custody taking place in the Bayan Baru lock-up, which is a newly-built centralised lockup facility and the sixth case which happened directly or indirectly under the custody of the Penang police.

The home minister’s RM25 million centralised lock-up is now proven to be yet another failed project, with two cases of death in custody taking place in the Bayan Baru centralised lock-up itself within two months of this year.

We are still waiting for the government to convene the Coroner’s Court on these nine (9) cases of sudden death. But the question remains, will the Coroner’s Court proved to be another toothless tiger, spewing out “open verdicts” like in the case of the inquest of former political aide Teoh Beng Hock?

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