Family say police responsible for Bersih death
By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The brother of Baharuddin Ahmad, who died yesterday after collapsing during the Bersih rally, has blamed the death on a “deliberate act of cruelty” by the police.
Kassim Ahmad, 72, told The Malaysian Insider his brother had died because he alledged that the police had withheld medical aid from Baharudin after he collapsed while running away from tear gas and water cannon bombardment.
“[They] asked the police to help send him to hospital but they refused, so we waited for one-and-a-half hours before the van came,” he said.
“A lot of people tried to revive him … Had he been given oxygen, he would be alive today.”
Baharuddin was laid to rest at 12.55pm today in Lembah Keramat Muslim Burial Ground, surrounded by the same yellow T-shirts he had marched alongside just a day before.
He leaves behind a wife, two sons and one daughter.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had earlier absolved police of the death, saying there was no contact with the demonstrators and that Baharuddin had died due to ill health.
