‘Are there no rules on interrogation?’

(NST) KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar is concerned that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission does not have set procedures in interrogating witnesses and detainees.

"There seems to be no protocol for questioning and interrogation methods. Are there no rules for the MACC?" asked its president Ragunath Kesavan yesterday.

Condemning the death of Teoh Beng Hock while being questioned by the MACC on Thursday, he said yesterday the MACC had no reason to interrogate witnesses overnight.

"It is indefensible that a witness in a routine investigation should have been deprived of sleep and interrogated for more than eight hours."

 

Quoting the Lock-up Rules 1953, Ragunath pointed out that interrogation cannot be carried out between 6.30pm and 6.30am the next day to allow detainees to rest.

"If there was insufficient time to finish questioning Teoh during reasonable hours of the day, he should have been released and asked to return on another day."

Ragunath said there was no risk of Teoh disappearing, especially when he was supposed to register his marriage the next day, adding that Teoh was denied access to a lawyer.

He said that while the law protected a detainee's rights, no rules applied to witnesses.

"Teoh was a witness. The MACC seems to suggest that he was not detained, which meant he was free to go any time.

"This is not true. We (Malaysian Bar) dispute this fact."