It's not an Abu Ghraib, but the purported video, apparently taken using a mobile phone in a Malaysia, features a prisoner, humiliation, forced nakedness, and the Koran. Malaysian authorities are launching an inquiry.
The clip, thought to have been filmed on a mobile phone, appears to show the prisoner and a female police officer.
The officer, who wears a Muslim headscarf, stands in front of the woman, who is forced to strip naked, grasp her ears and squat repeatedly.
It is a punishment common in Malaysian schools and is designed to humiliate, says the BBC's Jonathan Kent in Kuala Lumpur.
The pictures are accompanied by what appears to be a recording of verses from the Koran being recited, although it is unclear if the recording would have been audible to the woman.
On the positive side, at least they apparently had a woman officer present, thus preserving the semblance of gender propriety.
Apparently this is cutting back on their Chinese tourism dollars by almost half compared to 2004, as Chinese tourists have been detered by reports of such abuses.
A number of Chinese women have claimed they were forced to strip in Malaysian police stations while being spied upon.
Malaysian immigration officers have also been accused of profiling young female Chinese visitors as would-be prostitutes.
The price of a morals offensive? It seems plausible that the verses cited constituted a moral lecture. Yet other alleged actions, including robbery, suggest that there's also been a shakedown by corrupt officers.
What makes this doubly uncomfortable for the authorities is that the video emerged after a number of Chinese tourists alleged they had been arrested, forced to strip in front of male police officers and robbed.
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