'They were shot dead, execution style' - Surendran recalls grim Glenmarie killings

 

On Nov 13, 2010, Muhammad Shamil Hafiz Shapiei, 15, Mohd Hairul Nizam Tuah, 22, and Muhammad Hanafi Omar, 21, were shot dead by police at Glenmarie, Shah Alam.

The police initially claimed that the youths were armed with machetes and had tried to attack them after earlier robbing petrol kiosks in Monteres and Bukit Subang.

However, the post-mortem told a very different story, recalls human rights lawyer N Surendran (above), whose firm acts for the youths' families.

"The police claimed that the boys rushed at them with parang (machetes) and they had to open fire.

"But the post-mortem showed that the angle of entry bullets, number of bullets fired and the distance they were fired from all negated the police version of events.

"The post-mortem made it very clear that the police version was not true and what had happened was that the boys were made to kneel, their shirts were pulled over their heads, and they were executed on the spot," Surendran told Malaysiakini today.

"The bullet entry wound on Shamil was at a 45-degree angle, thus proving that he must have been kneeling. There was also gunshot residue on the shirts showing the bullets were fired from close range," he added.

Shamil, who was then 15, had seven wounds, including the fatal shot to his head, while Hairul, 20, also had three wounds including to the head, thorax and stomach, while Hanafi had seven wounds, with the fatal shots being on his head and chest.

Surendran was speaking after the families of the three boys were awarded over RM1.5 million in damages by the Shah Alam High Court.

It marks the end of a long process that began when the three families filed a lawsuit against the police and the government in November 2013.

The victims next of kin

In 2015, the High Court in Shah Alam dismissed the civil lawsuit brought by the families.

However, the Court of Appeal in a unanimous decision in August 2016 found the police and government liable for the deaths.

Surendran said that to his knowledge there has yet to be a successful prosecution of police officers found to be responsible for such killings.

"To my knowledge, they either don't charge the officers, or the process is so slow and unconvincing that the case just disappears within the system.

"Despite so many cases, it is still the police themselves carrying out the investigations. There is no independent body gathering evidence," he lamented.

Surendran also recounted the tragic death of Aminulrasyid Amzah who was fatally shot after taking his sister's car for a joyride in April 2010, just six months before the Glenmarie killings.

In that case too, it was initially claimed that Aminulrasyid was found with a machete.

"(Corporal) Jenain Subi was initially convicted and in the High Court, the evidence showed he (Aminulrasyid) was shot at more than 20 times. 

"Jenain subsequently had his conviction overturned, so to my knowledge, despite a number of high-profile cases, no one has been held accountable in a criminal court," he said. - Mkini