KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) will deliver its findings on May 25 following a public inquiry into alleged human rights violations linked to an incident at Taiping Prison in 2025.
The incident on Jan 17, 2025, resulted in the death of Gan Chin Eng, a 62-year-old inmate.
The inquiry panel, consisting of Suhakam chairman Datuk Seri Hishamudin Yunus, Dr Farah Nini Dusuki, and Datuk Mariati Robert, was tasked with determining whether any human rights violations had occurred in connection with the incident.
The panel was also asked to identify the nature and extent of any violations, determine how and why they occurred, identify those responsible, and recommend measures to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
The public hearings were held at the Kamunting Correctional Centre in Taiping, Perak, and Suhakam’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur between June 9 and Sept 22.
A total of 50 witnesses testified.
They included Commissioner-General of Prisons Datuk Abdul Aziz Abdul Razak; Perak prisons director Fayrouz Ahmad Zawawi; SAC Nazri Mohamed, who was the prison director at the time of the incident; Superintendent Shahrul Izzat Hamid, deputy director of Taiping Prison; Chief Inspector Shafril Azmir Mohd Shafie of Taiping Prison; prison doctor Dr V. Navin Esavik; wardens; and inmates.
Among the revelations during the inquiry were claims that prison officials had failed to attend the mandatory seven-day annual training for several years, and admissions by officers that they had used pepper spray and batons against handcuffed inmates and modified body scanners into X-ray machines.
Witnesses also gave contradictory testimony, with some denying involvement in the riot until confronted with video evidence.
Testimony during the inquiry also included allegations that contraband had been smuggled into the prison and that certain ‘towkays‘ earned between RM20,000 and RM30,000 a month from the trade.
Twentytwo13 was the first to report the incident at Taiping Prison that led to Gan’s death. He reportedly sustained “abdominal injury caused by blunt trauma” and died after being rushed to Taiping Hospital.
The mother of an inmate previously told Twentytwo13 that her son was among those allegedly beaten while handcuffed and his face covered with a T-shirt. She also claimed that her son did not receive proper medical treatment and received only stitches at the prison for head injuries.
Suhakam’s assisting inquiry officers, Simon Karunagaram and Mohd Faiz Abdul Rahman, headed the inquiry while lawyers T. Shashi Devan and Yoges M. Verasuntharam represented the families of 99 detainees, including Gan’s.
The Prisons Department was represented by Amirah Abdul Razak while Andrew Khoo, from the Malaysian Bar, held a watching brief.
On Dec 19, 2025 prison warden Ryndee O’Nel Victor, 25, was charged with causing Gan’s death. He claimed trial under Section 304(b) of the Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder at the Taiping Magistrate’s Court.
According to the charge sheet, the offence was allegedly committed between 3.30pm and 4pm on Jan 17, 2025, at Hall B of Taiping Prison on Jalan Taming Sari, Taiping.