COPS KILLED NEARLY 300 SINCE 2007

By : PATRICK LEE

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have killed nearly 300 people since 2007, Parliament was told. More than half of those killed were Indonesians, according to figures provided by Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in a written reply to Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (PSM-Sungai Siput) yesterday.

He said that Indonesians accounted for 151 out of a total of 298 alleged criminals shot dead between 2007 and August 2012.

Malaysians accounted for the second largest group, with 134 people dead. Next come Vietnamese (5), Myanmarese (3) and Thais (2). During the same period, police also killed one Nigerian, one Liberian and another person of unknown nationality.

Most of the fatal shootings occurred in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, 26 Malaysians and 58 Indonesians were killed. In 2009, 48 Malaysians and 34 Indonesians were killed.

Of the total, 142 people were aged between 21 and 40. Three were between 16 and 18 years. None was 60 or older.

Only two of the 298 were women.

It was also revealed that a large number of the dead—53 people—were shot by Selangor police. They were followed by Kuala Lumpur police (16), Johor (14), Penang (14) and Perak (11).

According to Hishamuddin, these deaths accounted for a total of 145 cases, and that they were classified as “sudden deaths”.