PETALING JAYA: A human rights NGO has called for an inquest into the death of four suspected robbers who were shot by police after a chase in Sungai Buloh yesterday.
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) said the killing of the four by the police ought to be independently investigated to determine if there was no wrongdoing involved.
“Madpet demands speedy independent investigations and inquiries into all ‘police shot dead’ incidents, which is necessary to clear doubts about police wrongdoings and/or abuse of power.
“An open inquest by a judicial officer should also be held for all such police shooting incidents. Madpet also urges police to arrest suspects, and try their very best to avoid killing them,” it said in a statement.
Madpet pointed out that Article 11(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a public trial, at which he has all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
The NGO also said Section 15(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code states that if a person forcibly resists arrest or attempts to evade it, a police officer may use all means necessary to effect the arrest.
“The primary objective is to effect arrest, not to kill the suspects. Were the police shooting to effect arrest or to kill?
“Could they have not shot and injured these suspects, in their 20s, and arrested them? If one of the four suspects accidentally died, and the others were shot and arrested, it may be reasonable.
“But all four suspects were shot dead – and not even one was arrested or injured. So, no suspect can tell us their version of what happened.”
The NGO also questioned a report by Bernama in which the police stated that the suspects were members of a masked robbery gang they were looking for, going on to ask why the suspects were not arrested or brought in for questioning prior to yesterday’s alleged robbery.
Touching on the police’s statement where they said the suspects were involved in 50 robberies in Selangor, and that several machetes, jewellery, cash, helmets and black clothes were found in their car, Madpet questioned whether such information was seen as justification for their deaths.
Stressing that past convictions of crimes is irrelevant in determining whether one is guilty of a new or different crime, the NGO said any determination of a person’s guilt had to be done in court.
“Are the now reported ‘beliefs’ of the police true, or is it simply an attempted justification for the deaths?
“The dead, obviously, do not have the capacity to now defend (themselves) against these possibly ‘false’ allegations. Maybe an independent inquiry will reveal the truth.
“Would these deaths now mean that all cases like the ‘50 robberies in Selangor’ are considered closed? Is it possible that the four were innocent, and the real perpetrators are still at large?
Now that a trial had been avoided, it asked if this meant the police and prosecutors would be freed of having the burden of proving the guilt of the accused.