AP Features, April 16th, 2007
A Malaysian woman is suing the police and government for 27 million ringgit (US$7.7 million; euro6.4 million), claiming police killed her son in custody then covered up the murder, her lawyer said Monday.
Sara Lily George, 48, has alleged that the death of G. Francis Udayappan in 2004 was the result of a "merciless killing or summary execution" by the police, said her lawyer Uthayakumar Ponnusamy.
Francis, a 23-year-old VCD seller, was arrested April 14, 2004 for allegedly stealing a mobile phone. The police claimed he escaped two days later by leaping out of a first floor window and jumping into a river behind the police station.
His decomposed body was found 37 days later. A government pathologist conducted a post-mortem and in April last year a coroner's court ruled out any foul play or criminal element in his death.
Sara Lily challenged the coroner's result, saying in her court statement filed Friday that she believed her son was tortured and beaten to death by police and his body dumped into the river. Her request for an independent post-mortem was denied.
She said her son could not swim and questioned why 10 policemen who went after Francis when he escaped couldn't catch him, according to the statement that was posted on the Web site of local rights group Police Watch and Human Rights Committee.
Sara Lily, who only got her son's remains back in April last year in a highly decomposed state, was shocked to find the head detached from the body and a large portion of the skull missing, Uthayakumar said.
She said her son should have been charged in court if he was guilty, but instead, police acted as "judge, jury, prosecutor and executioner all in one," according to the statement.
"We believe Francis was murdered and police fabricated evidence to cover up his death. We believed they tampered with his head to remove evidence of injuries in the event of a second post-mortem," Uthayakumar, who is also legal adviser to the rights group, told The Associated Press.
"This is the most serious case of death in police custody and one of the worst violation of human rights in the history of Malaysia."
The police has denied any wrongdoing in Francis' death, but have not responded to the law suit. Police and government officials were not available to comment late Monday.
In her suit, Sara Lily named a dozen defendants including the government, the attorney general, the inspector-general of police, a government pathologist and the deputy internal security minister.
Sara Lily and her relatives held prayers Monday outside the police station where her son had been detained to mark the third anniversary of his death, Uthayakumar said.
Malaysia's 80,000-strong police force has been criticized for rising numbers of deaths of detainees in police custody, violent tactics with suspects, corruption, abuse of power and inefficiency.
Some 80 people died in detention between 2000 and 2004, according to official data. Other statistics were not available.
