The Kuala Lumpur High Court threw out an animal rights group’s legal challenge over the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) classification of No Further Act (NFA) in a monkey torture porn case.
Judge Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid this afternoon dismissed Hak Asasi Hidupan Liar Malaysia’s (Hidup) judicial review leave application that targeted police, AGC, and the federal government.
Back on June 16, Hidup and its representative Dr Kartini Farah Abdul Rahim filed a legal action to compel prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the alleged perpetrator of monkey torture porn, following their NFA over the matter.
During online proceedings today, Ahmad Kamal ruled that the animal rights group failed to provide compelling evidence beyond screenshots of an alleged Telegram group promoting purported monkey torture videos and their Google Drive links.
The judge ruled that the NGO needs to meet a higher standard to obtain leave to commence judicial review as the attorney-general's decision - whether to commence prosecution or not - is cloaked in the presumption of legality per Article 145 of the Federal Constitution.
Ahmad Kamal pointed out that this is further strengthened by the 2021 apex court case involving Asian International Arbitration Centre director N Sundra Rajoo.
"The applicants must show mala fide (bad faith) on the part of the AG. In my view, this (alleged evidence provided by NGO to support judicial review) is not enough to rebut the presumption of legality (on the part of AG's NFA decision).
"(The NGO) needs to come up with more than just screenshots of the Telegram group as well as (alleged monkey torture porn) videos.
"These are not enough to show an individual (alleged by the NGO to be the person named in the police report and which prosecutors labelled as NFA) had committed the offence," Ahmad Kamal said.
The judge noted that the animal rights group's claim - that a police officer told them the suspect had confessed to committing the torture - is mere hearsay.
Wrong parties named
Ahmad Kamal also pointed out that the NGO's judicial review leave application also committed the fatal error of naming the wrong parties as respondents, namely the police and the federal government.
The judge noted that the crux of the legal action was over the AGC's NFA decision, which does not involve the police and the government.
"The applicant must correctly identify the parties responsible for the (contested) decision made in the exercise of public duty and function," Ahmad Kamal said.
The judge also noted that the legal action failed to identify the actual date of the AGC's NFA decision, as the April 5 date cited by the NGO is the date when the police informed the group via letter about the prosecutor's decision.
"They (group) did not identify the actual date of the (AG's) decision, this is fatal to the (judicial review leave) application.
"The court could not quash a decision when the date of decision is inaccurate (as stated in the legal action's cause papers)," Ahmad Kamal added.
Pavitra Loganathan appeared for Hidup, while senior federal counsel Ahmad Hanir Hambaly @ Arwi represented the government.
‘NFA unreasonable’
According to the affidavit in support of the judicial review, Kartini contended that the AGC’s NFA 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 alleged 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.
The social media group posting allegedly 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, Selangor.
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.
Hidup lodged a police report over the matter on Jan 20, urging the police to act 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.
Protected species
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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