AG promises action on Ipoh killing of Lam Yee Kwai with eight gun shots last October

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Gani Patail promises to take action in the case of the killing of Lam Yee Kwai, 40, who died after eight gun-shot wounds at an Ipoh Karaoke on Oct. 31 last year and the discharge not amounting to an acquittal of the suspected killer on June 2, 2003

Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya, Monday): The Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, has promised to take action in the case of the killing of Lam Yee Kwai, 40, who died after eight gun-shot wounds at an Ipoh Karaoke on Oct. 31 last year and the discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) of the suspected killer on June 2, 2003.

I had received complaints from Lam’s family about the injustice of the case when I was in Ipoh on Friday for the DAP forum on the National Service Training Bill and I had asked the Attorney-General at the Court of Appeal this morning after the postponement of the Anwar Ibrahim bail application hearing the reasons for the suspect in the killing of Lam Yee Kwai with eight gun shots being DNAA despite ample witnesses.

Abdul Gani expressed surprise at the case as he said he did not know anything about it and promised to take immediate action on it, asking for its particulars which I undertook to furnish him.

On my return to the DAP headquarters, I faxed to him three documents in connection with the case of the   multiple shooting and killing of Lam Yee Kwai, 40, in Ipoh on October 31 last year, viz::

Ipoh Hospital medical report dated 16.4.2003 which described the injuries sustained by Lam when brought to the hospital on Oct. 31, 2002 “unconscious with no spontaneous breathing” as follows –

8 gun shot wounds seen:

one at right shoulder
one at lower chest wall
one at abdomen
four at the left lower limb
one at the back (on the right side).

Ipoh High Court letter by the Deputy Registrar dated 24^th June 2003 informing Tetuan C.K. Leong & Co, lawyer of the family of Lam that the suspect had been discharged not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) on 2^nd June 2003 on the application of the Deputy Public Prosecutor.

Letter by Ketua Unit Pendakwaan, Pejabat Penasihat Undang-Undang Negeri dan Timbalan Pendakwa Raya, Perak, Shahidani bin Abd. Aziz, dated 27th June 2003 to Tetuan C.K. Leong &. Co. that “kes ini telah di DNAA atas arahan Jabatan Peguam Negara, Putrajaya”.

It has been reported in the media that the shooting and killing took place in front of a Karaoke Lounge in Ipoh on October 31 at about 8 p.m. and there were many witnesses to the fatal multiple shooting. Lam Yee Kwai left behind a 10-year-old handicapped daughter.

Lam’s family members complained that they and their lawyer were never informed that the suspect who had been remanded by the police since the fatal shootings last October would be produced in court on 2^nd June 2003 to be set free and it was only from subsequent inquiries that their lawyer elicited the information that the suspect was DNAA on the directive of the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

In my fax to the Attorney-General, I asked for the re-opening of the case as justice must not only be done but seen to be done, and that it is in the public interest that explanations and reasons be given as to why the suspected killer of Lam Yee Kwai with eight gun shots in Ipoh last October had been discharged not amounting to an acquittal despite ample witnesses and without the victim’s family, lawyer and the press being informed of the court proceeding beforehand.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers should emulate the Anti-Corruption Agency which pledged last week to be more accountable and transparent with a three-point policy to be responsive towards public demands for information about its investigations.

The Attorney-General owes the people the duties of accountability and transparency on the proper   exercise of his discretionary powers vested in him by Article 145(3) of the Constitution “to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence” to satisfy the public that he had not acted arbitrarily against the interest of justice – as had marred the career of his predecessor.

(14/7/2003)

* Lim Kit Siang, DAP National Chairman