Criminologist: Hitman hire as low as RM1,000

A day after an editor of a Singapore daily expressed regret over an article which said hitmen can be hired for about RM5,000 in Malaysia, a Malaysian newspaper has headlined that the price is actually even lower. 

According to Malay daily Sinar Harian, assassins can be hired for as low as RM1,000, which ironically fits The New Paper's controversial headline that ‘death is cheap’ in Malaysia. 

In the interview published in question-and-answer format, Sinar asked criminologist Akhbar Satar (right) if ‘price is a factor for the rise of murders using firearms, whereby an assassin can be hired for as low as RM1 000'. 

“Yes, but that's not the only factor. Now, firearms can be hired at a low price, too. In fact, used firearms from overseas can be bought cheaply, that is at RM700 per piece and below,” he said. 

Akhbar, who is also Transparency International-Malaysia president, said more people are learning to be assassins, using the Internet. 

“Assassins can be categorised as amateur, semi-professionals and professionals. In this country, most are semi-professionals, whereby the murders still leave evidence which help police solve the crime,” he said. 

Akhbar also said he believes the repeal of the Emergency Ordinance in 2011, which was “done too quickly”, had contributed to the spike in use of firearms in crime. 

“The logic is that murders using firearms are committed with those who have experience killing and have the guts to kill. Surely it is the former EO detainees who are hired to kill.”

Meanwhile, the New Straits Times headlined that the government is now mulling placing a tamper-proof tracking bracelet on hardcore criminals to monitor them. 

Federal Criminal Investigation Department chief Hadi Ho Abdullah today said about 30 percent of arrests between January 2012 and June 2013 had involved ex-convicts.