Terror suspects abused in Malaysia: report

Alleged members of an al-Qaida-linked extremist group jailed in Malaysia were routinely stripped naked, slapped, kicked and subjected to sexual abuse by police interrogators, according to a human rights document.

Security officials have said the questioning produced information about plots by Jemaah Islamiyah to bomb US and other Western interests in Singapore and other extremist operations in Southeast Asia.

Information also was gained about Malaysia’s role as a meeting point for senior al-Qaida operatives involved in the September 11 attacks, the officials said.

Malaysia routinely shares intelligence about Jemaah Islamiyah with Washington and in 2002 let the FBI question a key al-Qaida suspect at a prison camp.

There has been no allegation the FBI was involved in any abuses in Malaysia, although some rights activists have questioned whether the US government turns a blind eye to mistreatment of terror suspects by its allies in exchange for information.

The abuse allegations are contained in a report compiled by independent activists from prisoner complaints and handed to the government’s Human Rights Commission.

The commission said it did not investigate the claims and only forwarded the document to police officials, who have repeatedly denied condoning mistreatment of prisoners.

Unlike the scandal involving abuses at US detention camps in Iraq, there is no independent corroboration of the Malaysian charges such as photographs or testimony from non-detainee witnesses.

The activist group Human Rights Watch says it will release a report on Wednesday on abuses of Malaysian terrorism suspects.

Malaysia is holding about 100 people at the Kamunting prison camp under a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial. About 70 of those are alleged Islamic militants, many of them suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Malaysian officials allege the suspects threatened national security by vowing to wage holy war to create an Islamic super state in Southeast Asia.

Some are accused of involvement in plots to bomb targets in neighbouring Singapore. The bomb plots allegedly were masterminded by a militant known as Hambali, an Indonesian suspected of leadership roles in both al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah and blamed for attacks that have killed more than 200 people the past four years.

Thirty-one of the detainees signed a complaint that was lodged with the government’s Malaysian Human Rights Commission in January. The prisoners list 57 types of abuse they claim to have been subjected to after their arrests. Some detainees produced sketches of mistreatment they allegedly suffered.

The complaints range from verbal attacks and denial of religious freedoms to long periods of solitary confinement and physical abuse and humiliation.

A spokesman for the national police, Jamshah Mustapa, said he had not seen the commission’s document.

“But if there are such complaints lodged with us, we will investigate,” Jamshah said. “We do not condone this kind of thing. It is unethical. It is also not effective.”