Pagi tadi berkesempatan mengikuti bos, Tn. Hj. Zaid Kamaruddin (Presiden JIM) ke Sidang Media di Chinese Assembly Hall, Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur. Sidang media diadakan berkenaan isu kematian R. Gunasegaran semasa berada dalam tahanan polis pada 16 Julai 2009, yang mana pada hari yang sama Setiausaha Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor, Teoh Beng Hock ditemui mati di bangunan SPRM, Shah Alam.
Isu kematian R. Gunasegaran adalah isu yang terpencil, tidak mendapat liputan meluas di media arus perdana. Namun yang pasti isu sebegini bukan jarang berlaku, cuma hanya beberapa kes daripada beribu-ribu kes yang seumpamanya sampai kepada telinga rakyat jelata.
Berikut diperturunkan kenyataan media yang disampaikan pagi tadi bagi mencelikkan mata hati dan wadi kalbu semua akan latar belakang kes kematian R. Gunasegaran tersebut.
Terima kasih.
-WaN aM-
170809
Pusat Bandar Melawati
Joint Statement by Civil Society , 17th August 2009
Why Have The Remains Of R. Gunasegaran Not Been Laid To Rest
The remains of Teoh Beng Hock have been laid to rest.
The inquest into Beng Hock’s death is underway.
We pray that the truth as to why Beng Hock is no longer with us will finally be known and that his family will, in time, be able to move on with their lives.
What about R. Gunasegaran and his next-of-kin?
Gunasegaran died in police custody on 16th July, 2009, the same day that Beng Hock died.
Guasegaran’s body still lies in the Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH) mortuary.
His family is anxious to retrieve his remains, perform the requisite religious rituals and then proceed to cremate Gunasegaran’s remains.
Gunasegaran’s family, though, is in a dilemma.
The police have informed the family that Gunasegaran died, whilst in their custody, of drug-related causes.
Eye-witnesses who were present when Gunasegaran was first arrested and then held at the Sentul police station have confirmed that Gunasegaran was assaulted at the time of arrest and again assaulted, this time more severely, whilst being held at the police station, lost consciousness and died without regaining consciousness.
The family have been told that the post-mortem report will only be made available after Gunasegaran’s body is removed from the mortuary and after an application has been made to the hospital authorities for the same. The family have been told that the report would be made available to them some two months after their application for the same.
Acting on the instructions of the family members of Gunasegaran, solicitors wrote :
1. by letter dated 29th July, 2009 to the Registrar of the Kuala Lumpur Subordinate Courts to notify the same of the death in police custody of Gunasegaran and to request that an inquest into the cause of death be held. We have not been informed by the solicitors if they have received any response from the court registry in relation thereto, or if a date for the hearing of the inquest has been set;
2. by letter dated 29th July, 2009 to the Jabatan Perubatan Forensik, KLH to formally request for a copy of the post mortem report. No reply has been received to-date;
3. by letter dated 29th July, 2009 to the Pusat Perubatan Universiti Hospital (PPUH) to request that a second post mortem be performed on the remains of Gunasegaran. The solicitors were informed that such a post mortem could only be undertaken if the police authorities confirmed their agreement to the same in writing;
4. by letter dated 30th July, 2009 to the OCPD of the Sentul police station to request that a letter be issued to PPUH to confirm that the police had no objections to the latter undertaking a second post mortem on the remains of Gunasegaran.
The solicitors representing the family of Gunasegaran, concerned that the authorities who had been written to may not respond favourably, filed an application in the Kuala Lumpur High Court seeking orders for, amongst others, that a copy of the first post mortem report be made available to the family, and that the PPUH proceed to perform the second post mortem.
The application in the High Court is now scheduled for hearing on Tuesday, 18th August, 2009.
Dr. Prashant of the PPUH, who is scheduled to do the second post mortem, and who is also scheduled to give evidence in the Beng Hock inquest, was prepared to do the second post mortem last Friday, but has informed the solicitors of the family of the late Gunasegaran that the Malaysian Medical Council, since the controversy following the two post mortems in the Kugan case, require that the medical officer who performed the first post mortem must be present when the second procedure is performed. As to when this medical officer will avail himself so that the second post mortem may proceed without any further delay, no one can say.
In the light of the eye-witness accounts disclosed to the family of how Gunasegaran was assaulted at the time of arrest and during his detention, the unavailability of the report of the post mortem that has already been carried out and the seeming reluctance on the part of police authorities to allow the second post mortem to be carried expeditiously and thereby to either confirm or dispel the assertions of these eye-witnesses, how can anyone expect the family of Gunasegaran to proceed to perform the funeral rites for Gunasegaran without any further delay?
This is why Gunasegaran’s body still remains in the mortuary.
We now demand that :
1. the court authorities immediately hold an inquest to look into the cause of death of Gunasegaran.
2. the hospital authorities stop this practice of deferring the delivery of the post-mortem report to the next-of-kin, in ‘death in police custody’ cases, until after the body has been buried and / or cremated. Given the suspicious circumstances of deaths in many of these cases, it is simply unacceptable that the next-of-kin in such cases should not be privy to this important report before the body of the deceased is buried or cremated. We note that in the Kugan case, the family of the deceased there were at least informed of the substantive findings from the first post mortem report.;
3. either the Prime Minister, the Home Minister or the Health Minister immediately intervene in this matter so that :
3.1 the report of the post mortem that has already been performed will be made available to the family of Gunasegaran; and
3.2 PPUH may proceed to perform the second post mortem.
This statement is initiated by：
1. The People's Parliament
2. Civil Right Committee, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
（CRC-KLSCAH)
3. Writer Alliance for Media Independence（WAMI）
4. Civil Society Initiative for Parliamentary Reform
（CSI@Parliament）
5. Suaram
6. Civil Society Committee of LLG Cultural Development Centre Bhd
7. Jamaah Islah Malaysia（JIM）
8. Malaysia Youth and Students Democratic Movement (DEMA)
9. Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor（Empower)
10. Centre for Policy Initiatives（CPI）
11. Serdang Bharu School Alumni Youth Section
12. Bar Council
No comments:
Post a Comment