Kuala Lumpur: Defence minister Khaled Nordin has urged the public not to speculate over the death of a soldier, allegedly abused by two senior personnel at a military camp in Miri, Sarawak.
Khaled advised the public to give police space to carry out their probe thoroughly.
“The reasonable thing to do at this point is to let the police investigate first or else there will be misunderstanding or confusion in terms of information given to the public,” he told reporters after an event at the Royale Chulan Hotel today.
Preliminary findings from the post-mortem identified the cause of death as blunt chest trauma, resulting from severe impact to the chest that caused heart damage.
Khaled warned that any form of bullying within the armed forces was unacceptable.
The minister also said his ministry would cooperate fully in the investigations and remain transparent in this matter to ensure it does not happen again.
Yesterday, Berita Harian reported that two soldiers, aged 22 and 24, attached to the 20th Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment, were arrested and remanded until April 2 to facilitate investigations.
The Malay daily earlier quoted a source as saying that the victim was awoken by two senior personnel at around 2.15am on Monday for the pre-dawn meal.
However, before he began eating, the seniors allegedly ordered him to assume a “commando rest” position for two minutes. This involved him balancing his head on the floor with his hands behind his back. This was followed by 20 push-ups.
The soldier collapsed after completing the exercise. He was taken to Miri Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3.05am.
