Uthayakumar writes from Kajang Prison
OCTOBER 24, 2013
I have and am being tortured with mala fide at the most feared and dreaded closed isolation lock-up (tutup) of Kajang Prison all in for 27 days and to continue indefinitely. I am locked-up under solitary confinement alone, 24 hours a day not seeing sunlight or fresh air [in a] dimly lit cell and [with] just one set of prison pants and shirt in an empty lock-up.
Also denied reading and writing materials and even warm water to drink. Drinking the contaminated tap water caused me to fall ill. Also denied the 15 minutes weekly phone calls to lawyers and family, denied the monthly family visit and lawyers’ visit.
I am denied even a toothbrush, toothpaste, bathing and washing soap, towel, blanket, pillow and even the ½ inch foam mattress to sleep on the cement floor that he otherwise gets.
I am forced to sleep on the bare cold cement floor despite also suffering from arthritis, forced to drink rice porridge using a dipper (gayong) I and hundreds, if not thousands of other prisoners use/have used to wash their backsides.
My sole shirt and pants remain unwashed (even with plain water) for days, as it will take days to dry with the very small only one feet x 1½ feet ventilation grille. Upon returning from Court (appeal) on 24/9/2013, I was locked up for 8 days in a dirty, dark, hot and stuffy 10 feet x 10 feet "quarantine" lock-up at the death row with another open (no partition) squatting toilet bowl and bath area of 2 feet x 10 feet with no bathroom privacy even during early morning long calls together with five other dangerous and violent criminals.
As a diabetic patient of 17 years, I am still given sweet white bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the three prison doctors’ written note, I was given a plastic chair because of my prolapsed disk backbone pain.
But this is the third time it is being taken away despite my legs getting swollen and toes numb as a result of sitting on the floor and my complaints of severe pain ignored. Despite the prison authorities been given three of my specialist medical reports (since 2009), I was refused to be taken for treatment (by appointment) on August 1, 2013 with HUKM consultant neurosurgeon Prof Dr Shanmugarajah despite our solicitors letter enclosing the appointment card.
For complaining about the above and other prison conditions and abuse of other prisoners, I have been scolded with the words "kurang ajar" (ill mannered) by DSP Mohamad Noor and "you are a bloody prisoner" by prison Superintendent Ranjit Singh and repeatedly shouted at.
After almost 4 months being treated with at least some semblance of a security prisoner, the prison authorities are now with mala-fide forcing me to squat in line in muster (roll call) with other dangerous and violent criminals. Earlier I was allowed to remain in my cell for the other three i.e. 11.00am, 2.00pm and 4.00pm musters.
Despite my 4 pages appeal letter to the Prison Director Tuan Haji Wahab dated October 2, 2013, not only has there been no positive action but this latest torture of 27 days (plus 8 days quarantine) in the most feared and dreaded isolation cell, for citing my safety and not wanting to muster with the other dangerous and violent criminals.
I hereby appeal that:
- I, an ex-ISA detainee, is forthwith transferred to the hospital wing in view of my illnesses as this wing being the safest place in prison or at the very least the security wing, as I have also represented victims as their lawyer, whose perpetrators, 3 are in the death row and scores more gangsters in the very same prison, (as well as) previous murder attempt and live bullet sent to me and made known to directors and prison officers. Why this racial injustice when previously Malay and Chinese political leaders like Lim Guan Eng, Mahfuz Omar, Mat Sabu, Mathias Chang and Anwar Ibrahim had been detained at the safer hospital wing?
- Forthwith send me to HUKM (Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) appointment.
- Stop the above and all prison torture and abuses of all other prisoners.
- If not the Prime Minister, the Home Minister to urgently visit me in the prison to know the first-hand truth.
Thank you.
Uthayakumar, the Hindraf leader, has been serving a two-and-half-year jail sentence for sedition at the Kajang Prison, since June 2013.
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