Lawyer group seeks special probe of Cheras killing

Lawyers for Liberty says there is something amiss in the police version of the story.

KUALA LUMPUR: Lawyers for Liberty (LFF) today called on Bukit Aman police headquarters to set up an independent body to investigate the death of three men in an alleged shootout with policemen in Cheras last month.

Speaking after lodging reports at the Dang Wangi police headquarters, LFL advisor N Surendran also demanded the suspension of the policemen involved as well as Kuala Lumpur CID chief Ku Chin Hwa for issuing a statement on the tragedy before the incident was properly investigated.

The incident happened at the Billion roundabout on April 14.

Police said the three were suspects in a jewellery heist in Shah Alam eight days earlier and they were shot dead after they opened fire on the policemen from their car.

The deceased were Aidi Noor Hafizal Othman, 24, his brother Noor Azman, 39, and their friend Saufi Ahmad, 23.

Ku was reported saying that a parang and drugs were found in their car.

Surendran said he doubted the police’s version of what happened because the three had multiple gunshot wound on their bodies, including on the head.

“Azman had eight gunshots and Aidi had 11,” he said. “If the police were merely defending themselves, why did they end up with so many gunshot wounds, especially on the head?”

He also asked why the police had so much trouble trying to apprehend them when they had only one gun between them.

“Is it very difficult for the police to shoot them on their arms and legs instead?”

The brothers’ mother, Sosnijan Sarwarkhan, 65, told reporters she did not believe that they were criminals.

“They were good boys,” she said. “Besides, they were only suspects in a crime. Why kill them like this?”

If they were indeed guilty of a crime, she added, the police should have taken them to court. “If a judge had punished my sons with death, I would have accepted it. But why shoot them? Even animals are treated better.”

Her husband, Osman Yusoff, said he believed the police were trying to hide something.

“The day after my sons’ death,” he said, “a reporter came to speak to me at the morgue in HUKM, but the police stopped me from talking to her.”