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| Southeast Asia |
| Malaysian Police defend naked searches |
| 2005-12-13 |
| MALAYSIAN police have defended the practice of making women detainees strip naked and do ear squats, telling an independent commission of inquiry it was a "tradition". The Malaysian Government set up the commission to investigate the way body searches are conducted after a 71-second mobile phone clip was released by opposition politicians last month. In the clip, a Chinese woman is filmed from the back, apparently through a window, being instructed to strip and hold her ears while she does 10 squats. Before the clip was produced, investigations into other complaints of police arrests of Chinese nationals had stalled. The unidentified woman in the clip was expected to be one of 21 witnesses to give evidence to the inquiry in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Police say the naked squats are an effective non-contact way to prevent drugs or dangerous items being smuggled into police lock-ups. However, the practice is also used on women who have been arrested on passport offences. In defending the practice the acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Hazam Azam Abdul Halim, told the inquiry the naked squats were not in the regulations but had become a tradition, conducted by a female policewoman in private. "This is a private affair. We want to protect their dignity," Mr Hazam said, according to the New Straits Times. There was no explanation of how the video clip was taken. The head of the commission, former chief justice Tun Mohamed Dzaidin Abdullah, expressed concern that women arrested on passport offences were also subjected to the squats. "This is an abuse," he said. The ear squats video clip has also highlighted Malaysia's controversial targeting of Chinese nationals and created a backlash from China. When the allegations emerged, the Chinese embassy offered to support legal challenges by the detainees. Malaysia's Home Minister, Azmi Khalid, was forced to issue a statement denying immigration officials and police were profiling young Chinese women, many of whom come to Malaysia on short-term visas to work in the entertainment industry. |
| Posted by:john |
| #3 I just wanna know if they can blow smoke rings. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-12-13 23:01 |
| #2 or make change |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-12-13 22:44 |
| #1 young Chinese women, many of whom come to Malaysia on short-term visas to work in the entertainment industry. Makes sense to me. If you can't do a few squats, how ya gonna ride that brass pole? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2005-12-13 21:33 |