The father of Dr Tai Eng Teck who was tragically shot dead by a policeman three years ago claimed that the Kuala Lumpur High Court was wrong to free the accused who had previously been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for causing the death of his son.

Tai See Beng called upon Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail to appeal against Justice S Augustine Paul's decision to acquit Constable Tony ak Beliang for causing the death of his son at Bandar Tasik Selatan LRT station in Cheras at about 10.20pm on Sept 20, 1999.

Lawyer Karpal Singh, who held a watching brief during the trial at the Sessions Court, said Tai had instructed him to make a formal request to Gani to take the case up to the Court of Appeal.

Tai had since filed a negligent suit against Tony and the federal government for causing his son's death at the Kuala Lumpur Civil High Court and the case had been scheduled for case management on Oct 31.

Yesterday, Paul set aside Tony's conviction and sentence after holding that the shots were fired by the policeman under a "life threatening situation".

Right to shoot

Relying on Tony's partner Lance Corporal Abdul Muin Idris who was at the scene of the incident, Paul said that the victim's car was moving straight towards Tony who had no choice but to fire the shots.

The traditional media yesterday reported that Paul, in his oral judgment, had said that the police should be given every encouragement to book criminals and if necessary, be given the right to shoot in order to enforce the administration of law and order.

He said if the police are brought to court for the use of force, then the administration would be halted and thus cause the police to hesitate in carrying out their duties and instead "think of other possibilities before using their weapons".

Tony of Sarawak and attached to the Sungei Besi police station, was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 (a) of the Penal Code which carries a maximum 20 years jail on conviction. Karpal said that he has prepared a letter to Gani and will send it as soon as possible considering that the prosecution has only 10 days to consider whether to appeal or not.

"We planned to send the letter by hand to the AG's office in Putrajaya on Monday. We state that we feel that the sessions court was right to convict him for manslaughter and the High Court had no reason to set it aside," he added.

Meanwhile Gani said that he is aware of the acquittal but is not able to make any decision just yet as he has not examine Paul's written judgment, which in not available yet.

"I can't simply give instruction without reading the judgment. We must have cogent reasons before making any decision. It would be better and fair to everyone if we study the judgment first," he said.

Trigger happy

On Dec 17 2000, sessions judge Ahmadi Asnawi convicted Tony and sentenced him to eight years jail stating that the act was serious as it gave the impression that the police are "trigger happy".

He said the shots were not fired randomly by Tony but were calculated to cripple or destroy his target.

Ahmad Asnawi said the intention to cause death was evident as Tony had fired the shots non-stop without knowing who or how many people were in the car and what they were doing.

During the trial, staff nurse Suhana Mohamed Nor who was with the victim during the incident, testified that they panicked when they heard a loud knock on the windscreen of the car which was parked at the LRT station.

She said they became even more petrified when they heard shouts of anger and the victim decided to drive away fearing that the people were criminal, robbers or vice officers.

Medical evidence stated that the victim died due to a shot fired from about five feet or 1.5 metre away resulting a fatal brain injury.