(Dec 7): Malaysian police need a mindset change that involves self-restraint and respect for human rights, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Paul Low said on Human Rights Day 2015 today.

He said in carrying out enforcement work, police might end up ignoring human rights issues, and such circumstances led to cases like custodial deaths.

"The police need a lot of mindset change. For many years they come from the school (of thought) that policing is about toughness, enforcement and sometimes ignoring the rights of individual.

"(And) this is what happens in custodial deaths.

"(Police) officers need to be trained, part of their training need to include issues of human rights and not just enforcement. That sort of mindset needs to change," Low said when delivering his speech before a Human Rights Day 2015 panel discussion in Kuala Lumpur.

He said self-restraint was important especially when police officers had to deal with criminals.

"When you bring in criminals who don't respect the laws you need to exercise self-restraint, they can spit at your face, say four-letter word, but as a law enforcer you need to exercise self-restraint,"

"You have to understand they have issues, they have their rights."

Recently, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) highlighted that there was foul play in the death of Syed Mohd Azlan Syed Mohamed Nur, 25, who died in police custody at the Sungai Renggit police station on Nov 3, 2014.

The EAIC report, released on October 30, said the death was caused by “physical violence” by police arresting and interrogating Syed Azlan during detention.

It also found that there were 61 injuries on the body and that police had disrupted material evidence by changing carpets with the deceased’s bloodstains in the station.

Human rights group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) earlier this year was reported saying there were a total of 14 custodial deaths last year, and 111 deaths in detention from 2005 to 2014. – The Malaysian Insider