Finally, after 5 months, royal escort who assaulted deaf driver to be charged

After more than five months and numerous protests from rights groups, lawyers and disabled activists, a police officer who was seen on dashcam video assaulting a deaf e-hailing driver will be charged today.

He will be charged at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates' Court under Section 323 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing hurt.

Dashcam footage of the incident which took place on May 28 showed deaf Grab driver Ong Ing Keong waiting for passengers outside the St Regis Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, when a man shouted at him to move his car to make way for an entourage of Johor regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, better known as TMJ.

Ong then rolled down his car window to speak to what looked like a police officer, before the man suddenly attacked him with a hard punch on the face.

He was later treated at Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a soft tissue injury.

Public outrage increased when it was revealed that a "palace representative" had asked Ong to withdraw his complaint lodged with the Brickfields police station.

Ong rejected a claim by city police chief, Rusdi Mohd Isa, that he had withdrawn his police report as it was a "misunderstanding".

Instead, Ong disclosed that an officer had given him the choice of either accepting a sum of money from the palace representative or having his phone confiscated if the case went to court.

The delay in taking action was also criticised by the government's Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), which questioned Attorney-General Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh over his silence.

Meanwhile, Anwar Ibrahim's remarks defending the delay in charging the attacker, where he said investigation into the incident "takes time" and "is still open", drew immediate condemnation, with social media users reminding him to empathise with Ong as the prime minister himself was once assaulted under police custody hours after his arrest in September 1998.

"This is not a complicated murder case or a mega- financial scandal that it requires so much time. Anwar appears to have no answers, but only evasions," said Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), the rights group at the forefront of a campaign to ensure justice for Ong.