Lawyers blame AG for botching Aminulrasyid's case

The attorney-general (AG) Abdul Gani Patail must take responsibility for the fact that no one has been held accountable for schoolboy Aminulrasyid Amzah's death, says lawyers for the dead teenager's family.

With the appellate court upholding Corporal Jenain Subi's acquittal on Tuesday, the lawyers said there had been a "complete failure" inproviding justice to the family of the police shooting victim and this was a source of "great pain and sadness" for them.

"Most culpable is AG Abdul Gani Patail, who must take responsibility for another botched prosecution in a high-profile public interest case," said N Surendran and Latheefa Koya () in a joint statement yesterday.

"Gani only brought the prosecution under tremendous public pressure; initially the authorities wanted to let the matter drag on by instituting an inquest instead of a criminal prosecution.

"The attitude of the Attorney-General's Chambers can be seen from the fact that the family was not even informed of the hearing at the court of appeal on Nov 26, and were thus not present in court."

The Court of Appeal had held that the High Court did not err in its decision to acquit Jenain on 2012, which had found that the killing was accidental.

Aminulrasyid, then 15 years old, was shot dead while driving a Proton Iswara in 2010. The High Court had held that the 30 shots fired from a sub-machinegun were meant to stop the vehicle and Jenain (right) had no intention to kill Aminulrasyid.

The lawyers urged Abdul Gani to institute a review of the latest decision at the Court of Appeal.

Trigger-happy police

Meanwhile, NGO Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) warned that the court decision gives the police a ‘carte blanche licence' to kill anyone fleeing from the police even if they are not suspected of any serious criminal offence nor pose a threat to members of public.

"The courts support for trigger-happy police does not make Malaysia any safer. In fact, it will make Malaysia a more dangerous place, because any person who flees from the police is now liable to be shot and if he or she is wrongly killed, it is now open for the police to claim mistake or accidental death," said LFL adviser Eric Paulsen in a statement yesterday.

He said the court should demand that the police act according to established standards and use lethal force only when absolutely necessary.

Paulsen added that it was not possible for Jenain to have repeatedly shot at Aminulrasyid's car merely to immobilise it without also realising that this could cause serious injury or death.

He added that the court had failed to look into whether Jenain's actions were justified under the law and in accordance to the police's Inspector-General's Standing Order on the use of firearms.