The civil court has set July 20 to hear an animal rights group’s legal challenge against the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) classification of NFA (No Further Action) in a monkey torture porn case.
Counsel Rajesh Nagarajan, who is acting for Hak Asasi Hidupan Liar Malaysia (Hidup), confirmed with Malaysiakini the judicial review leave application hearing date before judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid.
He added that they are in the process of serving the cause papers on the three respondents in the matter, namely the police, AGC and the federal government.
When contacted, a representative from AGC said that they have yet to be served copies of the legal action.
Checks on the judiciary website’s official portal showed that the NGO's legal action is fixed for hearing before Ahmad Kamal at the High Court (appellate and special powers division) in Kuala Lumpur at 9am on July 20.
In the event that the civil court grants leave, then it would later fix a separate date to hear oral submissions on the merits of the judicial review.
Wrongful procedure
On Friday last week, Hidup and its representative Dr Kartini Farah Abdul Rahim filed the legal action to compel prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the alleged perpetrator of monkey torture porn.
Earlier on May 24, the lawyer told Malaysiakini that the AGC declined to provide reasons behind the NFA classification on the NGO’s police report over the alleged monkey torture porn.
According to the affidavit in support of the judicial review, Kartini contended that the AGC’s NFA - made on April 5 - is an unreasonable and wrongful procedure.
This is because the police allegedly failed to arrest the alleged perpetrator despite having purportedly confessed to committing it.
The animal rights activist contended that the NFA is unreasonable as the police have been given multiple concrete pieces of information and evidence that are sufficient to charge the alleged perpetrator in the criminal court.
She claimed that among the evidence are video recordings - saved in a Google Drive link and obtained from a multi-hundred-member Telegram group.
Burnt alive
The social media group posting showed baby monkeys having their necks cut with scissors, burnt alive, and severing their fingers in the bathroom of the alleged perpetrator’s home in Setia Alam, Shah Alam.
She contended that the evidence-gathering was made possible through an initial complaint by two animal rights groups - Action for Primates from the United Kingdom and Lady Freethinker from the United States.
The complaint involves a person’s alleged torture and killing of baby long-tailed macaques (Macasa Fascicularis) for entertainment and selling on the social media platform Telegram.
Through the judicial review, the NGO seeks a certiorari order to quash the AGC’s NFA decision, as well as a mandamus order to order the police to charge in court the individual under the appropriate laws.
Blunt objects
Hidup lodged a police report over the matter on Jan 20, urging the police to take action against the individual involved after receiving a tip-off from an international animal rights group.
Based on the information received, the alleged perpetrator recorded footage of the torture of the animals and sold the recording on a Telegram group called ‘Monkey Haters’.
The animals were allegedly struck with blunt objects or tortured to the extent that they were shrieking in pain.
The long-tailed macaque is listed as a wildlife species protected under the Wildlife Conservation Act.
Torturing wildlife protected under this act is punishable with a fine of not less than RM5,000 and not more than RM50,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
The Animal Welfare Act 2015, on the other hand, may fine individuals found guilty of animal cruelty between RM20,000 and RM100,000, or jailed up to three years, or both.
Despite their seeming abundance in Malaysia, long-tailed macaques are an endangered species worldwide, and their numbers are decreasing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The population is suspected of having undergone a decline of about 40 percent in the last 40 years and is expected to decline a further 50 percent in the next 40 years, the IUCN said. - Mkini
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