Following the conclusion of its public inquiry on the incident, Suhakam said CCTV footage and witness testimony provided clear direct evidence of wrongdoing.
While a warden has already been charged with culpable homicide, Suhakam chairman Hishamudin Yunus, a former Court of Appeal judge, said criminal investigations should be launched into other officers involved in the incident.
“Suhakam is of the view that immediate legal action is justified given that the incident is supported by CCTV recordings, which constitute clear direct evidence, as well as testimony from witnesses who directly witnessed the incident.
“The absence of proper control resulted in prison officers acting beyond their authority by carrying out arbitrary actions against the detainees, as though the law did not apply to them,” Hishamudin said at Suhakam’s headquarters here today.
He also urged the prisons department to immediately commence disciplinary proceedings against the officers involved.
More than 100 inmates at Taiping prison were assaulted by about 60 wardens during the relocation exercise from Hall B to Block E in January 2025. One of the detainees, Gan Chin Eng, died in the incident.
During the inquiry, the prisons department’s federal counsel admitted that prison officers were at fault for violating the detainees’ basic rights during the incident.
Suhakam flags false reports, manipulation of medical records
Hishamudin said Suhakam found that several police reports lodged by prison officers against detainees contained false and inaccurate claims portraying the inmates as the aggressors.
He also raised concerns over the alleged manipulation of medical records and the deletion of photo and video evidence recorded during the incident.
He said the prison’s medical staff purportedly attributed the injuries of inmates to falls and omitted references to violence by prison wardens.
“The pattern of these records showed that medical staff had also played a role in assisting Taiping prison authorities to conceal the true incident and protect prison officers from blame,” he said.
Hishamudin said the inquiry also found that treatment dates in the detainees’ medical cards had been altered to match the date of the incident.
He also said prison officers used pepper spray and batons against detainees, even on inmates who were seated in rows with their hands handcuffed behind their backs.
The officers had “lost self-control, as if they had gone berserk” while transferring the inmates, said the Suhakam chairman.
The inquiry found that the prison management proceeded with the transfer despite knowing Block E suffered from serious structural damage and unsafe living conditions.
Among the problems identified were sewage overflow during heavy rain, rat and centipede infestations, foul odours, and the continued use of a “bucket system” instead of modern toilets.
The panel said the detainees’ refusal to move into Block E could not be regarded as defiance, but was instead “a reasonable reaction arising from genuine fear”.
The inquiry also urged Putrajaya to introduce laws that would explicitly make torture, inhumane treatment, and degrading punishment a criminal offence.
It also called for stronger prison oversight and to stop using Taiping prison, built in 1879, as a detention facility because of its deteriorating condition.