It had been days since 45-year-old AR was last seen and heard by his family. On 25 January 2009, they received a call from the police informing that AR had died in his cell. It was only then that they found out about AR’s arrest for theft four days before the phonecall. His distraught family was left in shock. How did he die? That was the very question that AR’s family was so desperately seeking the answer to.

What parents aren’t worried about their kids mixing with the wrong crowd, getting into drugs, committing crimes. All parents are. But, getting killed, here in peaceful Brunei, while in the hands of the police even, is far beyond anything they could imagine to happen to their children.

On 28 January 2009, AR was buried at a Muslim cemetery in Kiulap. It is not known what else the police had said to AR’s family during the call other than informing about AR’s death and for the family to claim the body. But, one thing for sure, AR’s family was not willing to accept the death as an unfortunate case of a sudden death.

An autopsy was actually done on the deceased before the body was claimed and buried. At that point, the public was not yet aware of the death in custody incident. There was no pressure to reveal to the public on the findings of the autopsy. Furthermore, when the autopsy was done, the allegation of police brutality had not surfaced yet. So, obviously the medical examiner who did the autopsy was seeking to find out what natural causes that led to the sudden death, and not specifically looking for any sign of foul play.

According to a source, the autopsy report concluded that AR’s underlying health conditions would have likely contributed to his death, thus it was ruled a natural death. But, it was alleged that the autopsy also noted that there were bruises on AR’s body. Hmmm….well well well….

While acknowledging that AR indeed had some health issues, his family suspected that police were not forthcoming with the details about what actually happened that led up to his death, believing that there was foul play involved, hence the mysterious bruises on his body. Where does one report to such suspicion of crime when the alleged perpetrators are supposedly crime busters themselves? This is 2009 we are talking about, there was no WhatsApp, no social media, no viral phenomenon yet. So, the family went to the press.

On 29 January 2009, AR’s story was on the front page of the local newspaper with the headline “Police help sought on death in detention”. The article mentioned that AR’s family still don’t know the cause of AR’s death and thus sought police help to ascertain the cause. The public was shocked, outraged, they too now wanted answers. The police was faced with a major PR disaster. The same day, the police conducted a press briefing  announcing that “a thorough investigation is being done”. According to the police “On January 25th the deceased was found unconscious in the police cell by officers making their rounds in the detention cell. The medical services were immediately alerted to give assistance but he was pronounced dead at the scene” No cause of death was informed during the briefing with the police saying that they “are waiting to confirm the cause of death from the pathologist.” Wait, what?? It turned out that a pathologist from Singapore was enlisted to assist in producing a second post-mortem report. But, does it mean that AR’s body already buried on 28 January 2009 was exhumed??

During the press briefing, the police also announced that “so far there is no indication of any foul play.” Hellooo….What explains the bruises then??

On 02 February 2009, 04 police officers were brought before the court facing charges of manslaughter and grievous hurt over AR’s death – One police inspector, one L/Cpl and two PCs. Here was where more details came to light. The first charge of manslaughter alleged that sometime between 8.08pm and 0905pm, January 22^nd 2009, they allegedly committed culpable homicide not amounting to murder of AR. The second charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt for trying to extort a confession from AR. When arguing against the planned bail application, the DPP highlighted the likelihood that the defendants would temper with evidence referring to “some items” relevant to the prosecution that were yet to be recovered. Hmmm….what could that “some items” be?? Sounds to me like there were implements involved. With no cctv in the interrogation room, recovering those “items” could be critical as physical evidence for this otherwise circumstantial case.

On 09 February 2009, the four police officers made bail. They then appeared before the Magistrate’s court for further mention a couple of times (16 February 2009, 16 March 2009) before moving to the High Court for hearing on 30 March 2009. During the hearing no plea was taken from the defendants. The High Court adjourned the case due to the defendants defence counsel needing more time and several related documents. Throughout this, no further information about the case was divulged, nothing on the “items” as well. As the trial dragged on, it was clear that the prosecutor had a tough case to win, without the needed physical evidence. All they had was the testimony of AR’s accomplice in the theft that he was detained for, who claimed that he was there and saw the four police officers beating the crap out of AR (some brutal kicks and punches). The judge found the witness unreliable. In the end, in April 2011, the four police officers were acquitted of the charge and walked free, leaving AR’s family disappointed. 

So, what really happened in the interrogation room. Since there was no CCTV, only the four police officers knew what went down. It is not uncommon for detectives to yell, intimidate, make threats when interrogating suspects, as part of the good cop/bad cop tactic. Thats how they got information or confessions. We saw this on TV all the time. But, given the bruises on AR’s body, it looked like one, more or all of them got carried away. Some roughing up could be involved. Sure, if it led to AR’s death, it was not intentional, thus culpable homicide. Without strong physical evidence, it took a lot of good conscience for them to own up and admit that they messed up. Pleading guilty to culpable homicide would not only mean that they would be fired from the police force, they would also be put in jail joining the criminals that they helped put away. It was a grim scenario, perhaps why they said no thanks to good conscience.