Jet engines theft: Pakatan urges gov't to probe torture allegations

Jet engines theft: Pakatan urges gov't to probe torture allegations

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Pakatan Rakyat leaders urged the government to investigate allegations that military intelligence officers had used torture to try and extract a false confession from former RMAF sergeant N Tharmendran, one of two men accused of stealing two F-5E engines from an air-base in 2007.

“There was always something odd about how only a low-ranking staff like Tharmendran can be involved without other senior officers knowing about it,” Subang MP Sivarasa Rasaiah told Malaysia Chronicle.

“It is sad to keep hearing tales of such abuses of power, but the culture of impunity has taken root in the government and permeated through all the institutions, like the police, the MACC and so on. They are supposed to protect people but end up bullying and endangering them instead. The perpetrators have a false belief that they will never be caught or brought to punishment for their wrongdoing.”

Back to the wall, the 42-year old Tharmendran had told the press of how his interrogators – two officers with the rank of Major - had made tortured him, making him wear a crash helmet and then repeatedly hit him as hard as possible.

“They used a golf stick and something long like a cricket bat. The reason is that when you hit me with a helmet (on), there's no mark. You can't find any mark, but the pain is internal pain,” he was reported as telling Malaysiakini.

“That's what Major (name withheld) told me. (He said) 'I can hit you how hard I want, but there won't be any mark. Even (if) you go to the doctor he will say you only have (a) headache'.'”

Scapegoats for the top brass?

Tharmendran was charged along with a businessman Rajandran Prasad Kusy for the theft of the engines from the Subang air force base. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in jail and whipping. He is now out on bail after the court finally agreed to reduce the amount from RM150,000 to RM50,000.

The high amount of bail had earlier sparked uproar and public accusations that the prosecutors were trying to keep Tharmendran in detention to prevent him from telling his side of the story.

Indeed at the height of the scandal, military top brass including a general were suspected of being involved, while Tharmendran and Rajandran were perceived to be their scapegoats.

Speculation was also rife, especially within the diplomatic circles, that the jet engines were not stolen but sold by people in authority to Iran. The sale was now being dressed up as a theft in order not to anger the United States.

“The real story has not emerged yet. These are just the puppets, the small fry. What everyone still wants to know is who master-minded the theft and was it really a theft,” Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad, head of PAS international bureau, told Malaysia Chronicle.