Why send 20 cops to pick up lawyer Paulsen, asks former IGP

Twenty police officers were deployed to take Lawyers for Liberty co-founder Eric Paulsen to the Dangi Wangi police station. The number of personnel was questioned by former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan today. – The Malaysian Insider pic, January 13, 2015. 

Using 20 policemen to detain human rights lawyer Eric Paulsen was unnecessary, said former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan today, adding that it was also not part of the force's standard operating procedure (SOP).

He said Paulsen was only a lawyer, and it would had been enough to just summon him to the police station.

"I don't know why 20 policemen were deployed to detain him. That is not part of the SOP, unless the person tried to resist by force. But that would be a different story,

"One or two policemen would have been enough. He could had been told to just surrender himself to the nearest police station. He is a lawyer after all, and he could have just surrendered himself to the police," Musa told The Malaysian Insider today.

Police arrested Paulsen in Brickfields last night. Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), which Paulsen co-founded, tweeted that over 20 cops showed up to pick up Paulsen and took him to the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur.

It was reported that the police were investigating Paulsen over his recent tweet, which he allegedly accused the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) of spreading extremism through Friday sermons.

Musa said to be fair to the force, the police might have obtained certain information that prompted them to send 20 men to arrest Paulsen.

"Maybe they did that in response to some information they received. I am no longer in the force, so I don't have the full details.

LFL member N. Surendran tweeted that the police also took Paulsen to his law firm Daim & Gamany and seized his laptop.

The PKR lawmaker hit out at the police for the way they had acted, as if they were dealing with a "big gangster".

Paulsen's lawyer, R. Sivarasa, said today that the police have remanded him for two days to record his statement, take his fingerprints and search his house.

He also described the arrest as an abuse of power by the police as there was no basis to detain Paulsen.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar today warned against politicising or manipulating Paulsen's arrest.

He said the arrest was lawful and done to safeguard harmony within the country’s multiracial society.

"Don't do something with ill-intention and don't incite the sentiment of race and religion, in the name of freedom, that can destroy the fabric of our society," Khalid said in a statement.

- TMI