Bersih fracas: Cops release photos of officers

City police released images of police officers allegedly involved in assaulting the protesters and media last Saturday. 

(Free Malaysia Today) – The Kuala Lumpur Police, who had earlier released the photos of 49 civilian “suspects” involved in last Saturday’s Bersih 3.0 protest, have also now begun investigations into their own officers for alleged wrongdoings during the rally.

In a press statement released late last night, Kuala Lumpur police chief, Mohmad Salleh distributed images of police officers who allegedly assaulted the protesters and media.

This comes after police released 49 images of individual protesters on Thursday who were wanted for various offences during the rally.

“Today the police are releasing 42 additional pictures from our observations taken from media and police documentation of the rally,

“Also included are documentation of police officers who allegedly harassed protesters and the media,” said Mohmad.

He also added that through the pictures, he hoped that public who were near-by the area or had witnessed the said harassment would step forward and furnish the police with evidence over the alleged incidents.

Yesterday FMT reported that two of the 49 protesters sought on Thursday had stepped forward and approached the police.

Saturday’s peaceful rally turned sour after 3 pm when some protesters had breached the barrier which cordoned off Dataran Merdeka.

Police had to resort to using tear gas and water cannon to clear the crowd.

These methods however did not affect a handful of resilient protesters, some of whom were left with no choice but to linger in the city as the public transport such as trains leaving the area was temporarily out of service.

Failure to disperse the crowd ensured in brawls between the police and protesters for almost four hours during which many protesters alleged that they were beaten ruthlessly by the police.

Media personnel who were trying to document the brawl were also attacked.