Trio held over murder of district council officer

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Ali Jamal

KOTA KINABALU: Three people have been detained by police in connection with the murder of a senior officer of the Lahad Datu District Council in front of a commercial bank in Lahad Datu on Sunday.

Commissioner of Police Datuk Hamza Taib said the suspects, including the main suspect, all locals in their 20s, were detained 24 hours after the incident.

“Police believed that one of them is the main suspect as there were blood stains on his clothings and police also found a knife on him when he was arrested,” he told reporters when met during the Sabah Police Hari Raya open house at the state police headquarters in Kepayan here yesterday.

Present at the open house were Head of State Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Juhar Mahiruddin and his consort, Toh Puan Datin Seri Norlidah R.M. Jasni, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai and Sabah Navy Region Two commander Rear Admiral Datuk Anuwi Hassan.

Hamza added the police were looking for six other people whom they believed were involved in the 4.30pm incident.

He also disclosed that the police had the identities of the remaining suspects and efforts were being carried out to trace and track them down.

The victim, identified as Ali Jamal, 47, succumbed to injuries at the Lahad Datu district hospital around 6.30pm after he was stabbed during an argument with a group of men in front of a commercial bank at Jalan Teratai on Sunday.

It was said that Ali was beaten by 14 men after he reprimanded them for vandalising signboards and street walls. The men then fled the scene in a blue Nissan van.

The case has been classified as murder and is being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code.