Bersih wants Suhakam probe into police conduct

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan has urged the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) to investigate the alleged use of excessive force by police against Bersih protesters yesterday.

“What took place yesterday should not have happened,” she said after visiting the family of Baharudin Ahmad, who died yesterday after collapsing during the rally.

“I have already spoken to Suhakam and they will take further action.”

PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said he too is considering taking legal action against the police for allegedly knocking him over while riding pillion on a motorcycle headed towards Masjid Negara yesterday.
He reportedly sustained injuries to a ligament in his right knee during the incident and was seen sitting on a wheelchair at Baharudin’s home here earlier.
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“The police acted brutally by hitting, kicking (protesters) to the point where one was suffocated to death from the tear gas. This shows the Third World standard of our police,” he said in reference to Baharudin’s death.
Mohamad, better known as Mat Sabu, said the chaos seen yesterday could have been avoided if the police had given protesters “two or three hours” to disperse.
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“This... shows that the Najib administration is primitive and uncivilised,” he said.

PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who visited Baharudin’s family immediately after returning from Mecca, added that Bersih did nothing wrong yesterday as their demands and actions were in line with the principles of Islam and democracy.

PKR has demanded that a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) be set up to look into alleged police brutality, including what the party said were deliberate attempts to injure its leaders.

PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is said to have sustained injuries when police allegedly fired tear gas canisters at him and other party leaders at the pedestrian underpass in Kuala Lumpur Sentral.
Anwar’s bodyguard, Fayyadh Afiq Albakqry, and Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad also sustained injuries during the incident as a result of sustaining direct hits from the cannisters.

All three were hospitalised and warded later.