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Policeman's acquittal in deadly beating deals blow to ethnic Indians in Malaysia
Associated Press - January 28, 2011
Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian court on Friday acquitted a policeman accused of beating a detainee who subsequently died in one of the country's highest-profile allegations of police brutality.
The verdict is certain to upset human rights and opposition activists because no other person has been charged in the case of Ananthan Kugan, a 22-year-old ethnic Indian who died in January 2009 while being held in custody for suspected car theft.
A district court in Malaysia's central Selangor state ruled that prosecutors failed to prove any case against police constable Vivekanandan Navindran. Navindran had been charged with causing grievous harm to Kugan, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Minority ethnic Indians have staged angry protests over Kugan's death, alleging racial discrimination. Activists say Indians are often unfairly targeted by the police force, which is dominated by the ethnic Malay majority. However, Navindran is ethnic Indian.
N. Surendran, a lawyer representing Kugan's family, said the verdict signaled there was "never any interest or political will among the authorities to bring Kugan's killers to justice."
Prosecution witnesses said they saw Navindran beating Kugan with a rubber hose. He died four days after the alleged beating, but investigators said they were unable to find the hose and Kugan's specific cause of death remains unclear.
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