17 acquitted over first 2018 Seafield temple riot

 

The Magistrates’ Court in Petaling Jaya has acquitted 17 men without calling them to enter their defence against charges of rioting at the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Subang Jaya in 2018.

The 17 were Akmal Izzat Azi, Norul Ismawi Islahuddin, Hasneezam Shah Samsudin, Saifullah Abdullah, Riduan Sekh Ruslan, Irwan Noordin, Khairi Abdul Rashid, Rozaihan Zakaria, Qayyum Faisal, Ashraf Faizal, Absal Eastrie Abdullah, Jalil Talib, Khairol Anuar Zabidi, Zamri Said, Shukri Razali, Nor Azmi Abdul Ghani, and Shahril Danniel Sajeel.

Aged between 24 and 47, they were charged under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting and possession of dangerous weapons, which were allegedly committed between 2am and 5am on Nov 26, 2018.

After the incident, then home minister Muhyiddin Yassin had said police determined that the group was hired by lawyers who work for the developer that owns the land.

In his ruling today, magistrate Iskandar Zainol said the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case over the incident.

When contacted, the counsel for the 17, S Kirthiraj said the court found that the prosecution’s witnesses failed to identify the accused persons as the incident occurred in the wee hours of the morning.

He said the court found that not only was there no positive identification by the witnesses, but their testimonies during the prosecution stage of the trial were also unreliable and inconsistent.

Kirthiraj said the magistrate found that no weapons were tendered in court as exhibits as stated in the charges, pointing out that the weapons were merely collected from the scene by witnesses and not actually seized from the accused persons.

The lawyer added that the court also found no forensic report of the weapon was tendered in court and that there was no dock identification of the accused in the course of the police investigation.

The 17 were charged in December 2018 and the trial commenced in the following year with the prosecution calling 20 witnesses.

This incident sparked another riot, which led to the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim. - Mkini