ON the eve of the Merdeka Day (Aug 30), another suspected criminal has been reportedly shot dead instead of being arrested by the Malaysian police.

Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said a shoot-out happened at 9.33pm on Friday (Aug 30) when the suspect refused to stop after being ordered to do so by police in Jalan Bukit Beruntung, Rawang and instead fired shots at officers from Bukit Aman’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Police returned fire at the 36-year-old local man with 16 previous criminal cases, killing the said suspect on the spot. Hussein said investigation is being conducted under Section 307 of the Penal Code and Section 8 of the Firearms Act 1960.

This is a disturbing trend as such operation usually involve a ‘specialised’ police team. It is unclear whether they were in uniform and in easily identifiable police cars but they are certainly not the “normal two-man police car patrols” operating within their own police district.

The officers are believed to be members of a ‘special team from the Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or a joint federal-state police CID team consisting of operatives from the Organised Crime Investigation Division (D14) and Serious Crimes Division (D9).

Special squad

Normally such ‘special teams’ will not be involved in police patrols but are usually discharged for a very specific purpose.

The narrative in many of such cases is often too similar whereby the police would attribute the ensuing shoot-out to the suspect/s having failed to stop their vehicles upon being ordered to do so but instead “occupants of the vehicle” allegedly opened fire first with the police shooting back and killing the said suspect/s.

Very rarely is that the suspect/s in such encounters with the police got shot and arrested alive or just arrested unhurt.

The common police response - usually hours after the incident - is to paint the deceased as a ‘bad person’ with ‘criminal records’, etc. Remember that in Malaysia only the courts of law decide on the guilt or innocence and to mete out the sentence.

This trend raises serious questions if such ‘deadly encounters’ with the said suspect/s are coincidental or planned. What is of concern is also whether there was any intention to arrest at all?

Malaysian law clearly states that the police must arrest as opposed to killing criminal suspects. If the police encounter results in death - even in the name of self-defence - then the said police officers should be charged in court for murder or culpable homicide.

We hardly hear the result of the coroner’s inquiry or news that these police officers have been investigated and charged in court for such extrajudicial killing.

Note that the United Nations’ (UN) Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions states that “… An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification for extra-legal, arbitrary or summary executions …”

A police officer ordered to shoot to kill - not arrest - must and can defy orders from his superiors. - Sept 2, 2024

Main image credit: Utusan Malaysia 

https://focusmalaysia.my/human-rights-activist-concerned-about-disturbing-trend-of-extrajudicial-killing-by-malaysian-cops/