KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia security officials confirmed on Monday afternoon that three police officers have been suspended and detained after being accused of gang-raping a 25-year-old Indonesian woman on Friday, an official told Bikyamasr.com. Indonesia's embassy in Kuala Lumpur also confirmed the report, saying in comments to the Jakarta Globe on Monday that “Since the start [when the report was filed on Friday], they have been suspended from work.” “They have also been temporarily detained for seven days for questioning. In Malaysian terms it's called ‘direman.'" The Malaysian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the situation facing the officers is severe and that “all necessary investigative measures were taking place in order to get to the bottom of the potential crime. We have to find out all information before we decide on a trial.” The 25-year-old woman said that the three officers had picked her up late Friday evening after she did not show them her original passport, only a photocopy while riding in a taxi with another female friend, who had been dropped off shortly before the incident occurred. At the police station, she was told that she would be arrested and placed in the lockup. “She begged for them to release her and they asked her what she could give them to secure her release," said Bukit Mertajam Barisan Nasional coordinator Lau Chiek Tuan who had assisted the restaurant worker and called a press conference on Saturday to reveal details of the case. He said the woman had offered to pay the four policemen a “present" at the police station at that time but they laughed off her offer. “They asked her how many thousands she had with her to pay them and when she said she has nothing else but her body, three of them took her to a room at the station," he said. He claimed that the three policemen took turns raping the woman on a mattress in the room before they dropped her off at her home in Taman Inderawasih. She was also warned not to tell anyone about the incident. “She came to us for help at around 2pm on Friday and we took her to the Bukit Mertajam police station to lodge a police report," he said. The case has highlighted the growing insecurity in Malaysia for women, especially after last summer's repeated attacks on women at car parks across the country.
