Activist accuses prison officers of air-con torture

Wong Hong Toy, 62, assistant secretary of the 200-member Singapore Democratic Party, was released from Queenstown remand prison on Saturday, along with party leader Chee Soon Juan, 36, who has challenged a law restricting freedom of speech and assembly.

At a press conference in a cramped hotel room yesterday afternoon, Mr Wong said he suffered from rheumatism in his shoulder and that prison officers had questioned him for 30 minutes in a room with two air-conditioners running full blast.

Mr Wong said he had complained to Prison Superintendent Melvin Wong, and said "it was torture".

The superintendent questioned why he had not asked the officers to turn down the air-conditioning. "I was worried that if I made a request, they would take revenge," he said.

Government television last night said an unidentified prison department spokesman had denied that Mr Wong was tortured.

At the news conference were leaders of the Coalition for People's Democracy, which groups some opposition parties and non-governmental organisations in Malaysia.

Syed Husin Ali, president of the People's Party of Malaysia, who was held there without trial for six years, said: "We represent groups who are concerned about justice and democracy for our respective countries and the whole region.

"It is a struggle that demands sacrifice," he said, predicting more "trials and tribulations".

Mr Chee's first child was born while he was serving his second prison sentence within a month, for speaking without police permission.

He faces a third trial at the end of this month for selling his book To Be Free without a permit from the Health Department.

In the book, Mr Chee quotes former political prisoners in Singapore as saying they were drenched with water and interrogated in icy cold rooms.

The Singapore Government says officers found guilty of torturing prisoners are punished.