Lawyer files notice of motion for RCI on prison treatment

A Malaysian lawyer filed a notice of motion to the High Court here today for an order to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry on prisons' treatment of inmates.

P. Uthayakumar named Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his deputy Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Prisons director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Omar as respondents.

Three others named in the notice filed through Messrs Kumar Hashimah & Co, are Kajang Prison director Abdul Wahab Abdul Kassim, attorney-general and Malaysian government.

The lawyer is also seeking a declaration that keeping inmates with tuberculosis in the same cell with other prisoners, and allowing prisoners with AIDS to share nail clippers with other inmates contravened the Prisons Act 1995.