KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The family of detained lawyer Kamal Hisham Jaafar today claimed that the authorities had treated him badly over the course of his detention, alleging that apart from being deliberately exposed to poisonous bugs, he was even deprived of proper treatment when he contracted dengue.

In a lengthy memorandum handed over to the home ministry today, the family claimed that the police’s alleged mistreatment of Kamal Hisham started from the day he was arrested by so-called Interpol officers in Singapore on September 2.

The family claimed that Kamal Hisham was not allowed to contact them or his lawyer, and was instead quickly transferred to a Special Branch lock-up – in what they described as an abandoned building in a remote area in Malaysia – for 17 days where he had no access to a toilet and was left with just his underwear.

“Several times he was bitten by centipedes leading to swelling on various parts of his body. He slept while covered in fire ants and while being bitten by an abnormally large number of mosquitoes,” the family claimed in the memorandum.

The family alleged that Kamal Hisham was not allowed to fulfil his religious obligation to pray five times a day and that he was only handed a smelly, worn-out blanket after repeated requests.

The memorandum also described Kamal Hisham’s alleged solitary confinement at the Ayer Molek remand prison in Johor Baru, and was allegedly transferred out of the Sultanah Aminah Hospital quietly by the police after he was diagnosed with dengue on September 17.

“During his recovery period, Kamal Hisham was only given a glass of water a day. He was forced to drink water from the pipe in the toilet to avoid dehydration,” the family claimed, adding that prison authorities allegedly refused to allow him access to medication for his heart condition, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Prison authorities had also allegedly forced Kamal Hisham to have his head shaved up to five times before high-ranking prison officials, and allegedly forced to strip naked and squat every time he is brought back to his cell after court proceedings, the family added.

“At the time this memorandum was written, Kamal Hisham Jaafar has been under police detention and in prison for nearly three months. Throughout this period, Kamal Hisham has been given terrible treatment, on the pretext that this is all standard operating procedure that is practiced by PDRM and the Malaysian Prisons Department,” the family said, using the Malay acronym for the police.

“As an accused who has been remanded and yet to be proven guilty by the courts, Kamal Hisham does not deserve such contemptuous, undignified and inhumane treatment,” the family stressed.

On September 8, Kamal Hisham pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court in Johor Baru to six counts of abusing his position as a company director in connection with the lease of a business space at JB Sentral between 2009 and 2011.

The offences were allegedly committed when he was director of Southern Ads.

The 45-year-old lawyer pleaded not guilty to four charges and two alternatives charges made under the Companies Act 1965.