Sarawak police to conduct internal probe over leak of suspect's picture

MIRI: An internal investigation will be conducted to find the culprit who released mugshots taken by police of suspects involved in a drug case in Kuching as published by the social media today.
Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Chief Datuk Dev Kumar M.M Sree Shunmugam said the internal probe was a directive from the Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Amer Awal after the photo of the suspect was published by Facebook page Ruai Randau Sarawak without blurring the suspect's faces.
"Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Amer Awal is taking this matter seriously," he said in a statement today adding the individuals responsible for releasing these photos would be dealt with severely.
Dev said police were alerted by the posting today that quoted a media statement by Kuching police chief ACP Abang Ahmad Abang Julai about the arrest of three women suspected of drug activities, accompanied with a police mugshot photo of the suspects.
He said, Ruai Randau Sarawak posting had received hundreds of comments from netizens denouncing the Facebook page for publishing photos and the police for releasing the photos.
" We managed to find an individual connected with the page and ordered the posting to be removed immediately and the posting was subsequently deleted," he said.
He advised the media, especially online news portals and Facebook page administrators, to not publish photos of suspects or a least blur the face of the suspects.
"These suspects have not been convicted in a court of law and they are innocent until proven guilty," he said adding that publishing a photo of suspect before a judicial process could cause the suspect and his or her family members an irreparable damage to their reputation as well as cause mental trauma. – Bernama