Surendran says again: Attempted murder
PKR counters the police version of the July 9 events with videos shot at KL Sentral
PETALING JAYA: PKR vice president N Surendran, ignoring a threat of legal action, today repeated his assertion that there was an attempt to commit murder in the tear gassing of Bersih marchers at KL Sentral last July 9.
Speaking at a press conference where reporters were shown videos to counter the police version of events during the march, Surendran accused the authorities of ignoring evidence of police brutality, which he said was abundant, and questioned the impartiality of Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail.
PKR’s video presentation came a week after police screened a collection of clips for the media to back their version of what happened on July 9.
“The police version is inaccurate and false,” Surendran said. “They have not responded to the serious incident that took place at the KL Sentral underpass.
“Again I state that the attack should be classified as attempted murder.”
Surendran first uttered the accusation on July 20. Last Wednesday, police interrogated him for 45 minutes for making the statement. He told reporters afterwards that he was being investigated under the Penal Code on suspicion of making statements jeopardising public order.
At today’s press conference, he quoted from the Penal Code a definition of murder: “Without any excuse, A fires a loaded cannon into a crowd of persons and kills one of them. A is guilty of murder, although he may not have had a premeditated design to kill any particular individual.”
PKR’s video evidence
Revisiting the KL Sentral standoff, Surendran showed footage shot by FMT video journalist Saiful Hisyam Md Salleh as well as clips supplied by TV Selangor.
Lawyers for Liberty coordinator Fadiah Nadwa Fikri gave a running commentary.
“At minute 6.27 (of the FMT video), there were orders of ‘Bawah, bawah’, meaning they were planning on aiming directly at the protesters,” she said. “This is the first unlawful act we want to point out.”
She also noted that the canisters had labels warning against shooting directly at people and shooting into an enclosed area.
“At minute 7.28, you can hear the Brickfields district police chief, Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, asking reporters to step aside to avoid being shot at. This shows that the police already intended to shoot directly at protesters regardless of what happened.”
She noted that 12 shots could be heard. “Is it lawful for the police to fire so many shots at the protesters, especially in a confined place in the tunnel?”
Fadiah also referred to a TV Selangor video showing a policeman repeatedly beating a man with a baton although he was already restrained by two other policemen.
“That happened right after they fired the tear gas,” she said. “They tried to apprehend the marchers and were beating them for no reason.”
Surendran questioned why police investigations were directed against “peaceful marchers”.
“Where is the investigation on the unlawful and criminal acts of the police? Where is the investigation into the Tung Shin hospital incident? Where is the investigation into the severe injury of Anwar Ibrahim’s body guard?”
He said the authorities must classify the KL Sentral incident as murder. “I don’t see why the Attorney-General is not acting fairly in this.”
cruzeiro's note:"I recall clearly, that somebody charged quite a few arrested demonstrators of 'attempted murder' when someone threw a brick at the FRU/cops in Batu Caves during the Hindraf rally on 25/11/07 ....
So this charge of attempted murder should make sense to Gani Patil"
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