MP sees red over ‘dirty cops’

Joseph Tawie | May 30, 2011

Arrested, remanded, released, and re-arrested. Two men have been going through a cycle of arrests, prompting a DAP leader to cry foul.


KUCHING: Sarawak DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen has alleged that cases of corruption and abuse of power involving the police have become rampant.

The Bandar Kuching MP also promised to table a motion in Parliament to slash Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s salary by RM10. Hishammuddin’s ministry oversees the police.

Chong was commenting on two cases brought to his attention regarding two men who were arrested and remanded over and over, but never charged.

“They must have gone through 10 different investigation officers for each different case,” he said.

In the first case, one Voon Lan Mei, in her statement to the police at the Simpang Tiga police station, said her brother Kit Hiung was arrested on April 22 at about 2.30 am.

“Since then, my brother was continuously and repeatedly released from police remand (as ordered by the court) and immediately re-arrested on different suspected offences. The process of releasing and immediately re-arresting him continues until today. He is still in police custody at the moment.

“Despite the numerous arrests, he was not charged for any one of the suspected offences. In the process, several police officers called me to ask for money. Initially, I thought these were administrative charges of fine. I paid a few hundred ringgit, but no receipt was issued,” she added.

She said on May 24, when she visited her brother at the police station, Kit Hiung told her that a person in the lock-up informed him that he needed to pay RM5,000 to prevent re-arrest.

The next day, she claimed, the investigating officer at the Kota Samarahan police station asked her to pay RM300 to shorten her brother’s remand period.

“He sent me a SMS to bank in the money into a BSN account number. The following day, I received another SMS from a different phone number which read ‘belum masuk lagikah’,” she added.

Second case

In the second case, Sim Yain Yin lodged a report with the Simpang Tiga police station claiming that her husband David Khiew was arrested at a coffee shop in Tabuan Jaya on April 18.

“Since then, he was continuously and repeatedly released from police remand and immediately re-arrested on different suspected offences,” she said.

Sim claimed that several policemen had allegedly called her mother-in-law, asking the latter to pay several hundred ringgit. “We paid the money, but no receipts were issue,” she added.

Similar to the first case, Sim’s husband had also informed her on the need to pay RM5,000 to prevent continued arrests.

Meanwhile, Chong said he was not disputing the police’s power to investigate, but cautioned against abusing that power.

He also vowed to write to Hishammuddin over this.

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