SUHAKAM
Report of Public Inquiry into the Incidents During and
After the Public Assembly of 28 April 2012
3.26 Leong Siew Meng (W11) went into the lobby of Lotus Hotel near Jalan Melayu, to
use their washroom and to rinse off the effects of the tear gas. While the witness
was not detained and managed to leave the premises, he could hear the police
shouting orders to the ones who were still inside the hotel to leave the hotel. Later,
upon being chased by the police, he entered Wisma Bandar’s basement car park
and remained there to avoid being arrested.
3.27 The Panel also watched a video (Exhibits 29 (a),(b),(c)) submitted by Lee Teck
Yew (W12), who was at the LRT Masjid Jamek station at about 6.50 pm where he
managed to videotape a few police personnel beating members of the public who
were in the station. Upon seeing him recording, some police personnel approached
him, pulled his T-shirt and arrested him.
3.28 Karam Singh a/l Charan Singh (W14) testified that at about 7.00 pm, he entered the
A&W restaurant at Jalan Silang and noted that 90% of the customers consisted
of participants of the assembly. While he was inside the restaurant, he noticed
that the police were chasing a group of participants along the road outside the
restaurant. Upon seeing this, the staff of the restaurant locked the doors. However,
within 5 minutes, a group of police personnel came and noisily demanded to enter
the premises, showing their authority cards. When the staff unlocked the door, the
police personnel went inside, and approached the customers, including W14, and
demanded that they take off their BERSIH T-shirts. W14 also received a punch
from the police personnel while still in the premises.
3.29 Hee Jenn Wei (W21) was registered as a guest at the Citin Hotel situated in the
Masjid Jamek area. When the police started to fire tear gas, W21, who was wearing
a yellow BERSIH T-shirt, was in front of the OCBC bank. In the panic that ensued,
the participants moved backwards towards Masjid Jamek area and knowing that
this was also the way to Citin hotel, he moved with the crowd for about 10-15
minutes until he reached the hotel. The hotel was locked and only those with
access card could enter the lobby. The staff of the hotel had earlier covered the
glass panel of the lobby with mahjong paper so that the lobby was not visible
from the outside. Once inside, W21 entered the hotel’s cafeteria and together
with his lady companion, proceeded to order some food. After 20-30 minutes, a
few police personnel entered the lobby of Citin Hotel and one police personnel in
uniform without any name tag pointed in the direction of W21 and shouted, “you
ikut saya”.24 He asked the police several times whether he was under arrest but
received no response. Instead, he was grabbed from his chair and pulled to the
entrance of the hotel. He informed the police ‘I am not going to struggle’ with his
24
“You, follow me.”
27