The High Court in Shah Alam today threw out a claim brought by families of three men who were gunned down by the police in Glenmarie five years ago.

Justice Rozana Ali Yusof ruled the police were justified in discharging their firearms as the three men were brandishing parang (machetes) and moving towards the police.

"The court dismisses the claim brought by the plaintiff," she ruled, and ordered the plaintiffs to pay costs of RM20,000.

Justice Rozana in her judgment also ruled the three police officers who gunned down the three - Inspector Azrin Ezahar‎, Corporal Kamarul Zaman Awang, and Lance-Corporal Khairul Azahar Jali, to be credible witnesses.

It was reported that the three - Mohd Shamil Hafiz Shafie, 15, Mohd Khairul Nizam Tuah, 20, and Mohd Hanafi Omar, 22 - were shot dead on Nov 13, 2010, after allegedly robbing a petrol station.

The parents of the three youth named the Shah Alam district police chief, the Selangor police chief, the inspector-general of police and the government in their suit filed in November 2013.

They are seeking special damages of RM21,000; general, aggravated and exemplary damages; and malfeasance damages, interest and costs of the action.

Immediately after the incident took place, family members claimed Mohd Shamil, Mohd Khairul and Mohd Hanafi were shot execution style .

The shooting followed a dramatic car chase, and the judge ruled that the police were justified to shoot them as the police were were protecting themselves.

“There is credible evidence that defendants were threatened and in exercising their rights of self-defence, there is reasonable cause to fire their guns,” Justice Rozana ruled.

She dismissed the pathologist’s report that the shots fired were from a 45-degree angle from the top, suggesting they were shot execution style.

“The court is not able to determine this as no expert witnesses,  including a weapons expert, were called. Hence, the court rules out the likelihood that they were involved in a cross-fire or execution,” Justice Rozana said.

She clarified that the court's hands are tied as the court cannot decide such matters in absence of evidence.

Plaintiff will appeal today's decision

Senior federal counsel Norliza Zulkifli and Kamal Azira Hassan represented the defendants while Latheefa Koya and Michelle Yesudas appeared for the plaintiffs.

Latheefa ( photo ) indicated to reporters, when asked, that they will appeal today's decision.

She said this was because the court had not addressed the issue of the shooting that was was done 45 degrees from the top, which is characteristic of execution style killing.

The lawyer said it was clear from the post-mortem report that this was so, and the post-mortem was accepted and never challenged.

“Basically the court accepted the police version. There is no answer as to why they three bodies were seen as if they were heading back to the car after being shot and why the bullets on all of them were from 45 degrees. This was something that was not considered,” Latheefa said.

Despite assertions of parang being carried by the three, the police photographs did not show this, she added.