KUALA LUMPUR : The Malaysian Police may soon have a codified
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for conducting body
searches.
This comes as a report by a five-member commission on the nude
squat incident last year was released to the public.
The panel said Malaysia should ban police searches that force
suspects to do squats in the nude because it is a violation of
human rights.
The video of a Malay woman doing nude squats sparked off the review
into the way the Malaysian Police Force conducts body
searches.
The commission, led by a former chief justice, said there were
legal groundings for the police to conduct body searches.
But statutes like the Criminal Procedure Code and Lockup Rules do
not clearly describe how the searches should be done.
In strongly-worded criticism, the commission also said Malaysia's
police "remains resistant to change and insensitive towards human
rights."
They described nude squats as "improper and forbidden" under
Islamic or shariah principles.
The commission has recommended all police stations be equipped with
body scanners to detect concealed items, and that medical officers
conduct body cavity searches.
The Commission reviewed the best practices of other police forces
that share similar statutory provisions, like the United Kingdom,
Singapore and Australia.
The Malaysian government has said the proposed "Code of Practice on
Body Search" (COPOBS) will be examined by a committee of
lawmakers.
While this is just a proposal by the Commission, the Police Force
has indicated that it's interested in adopting it as its Standard
Operating Procedure.
The Commission has also gone further to proposed COPOBS to be
passed as a subsidiary legislation under the Criminal Procedure
Code and be made accessible to the public through the Police Force
website. - CNA/de
See... The panel knew Malaysian police resist to any changes
