PUTRAJAYA: A cloth merchant and his brother-in-law who were detained for suspected involvement in the murder of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin will receive RM41,500 and RM31,500 in damages respectively for wrongful arrest.
The duo, Mohamad Zamri Ibrahim, 38, and Mohd Suhaimi Yusoff, 33, succeeded in their appeal at the Court of Appeal here Thursday to restore the Sessions Court’s decision which held that they were wrongfully arrested and awarded them damages.
They lodged the appeal with the Court of Appeal after they were denied the damages when the High Court, on Dec 1, 2010, allowed an appeal by the respondents – investigating officer ASP Loh Pei Pei, the Inspector-General of Police and the Government – to set aside the Sessions Court’s decision.
A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Wahab Patail in a unanimous decision allowed the duo’s appeal and did not make any orders on costs.
Justice Wahab said the High Court erred in not arriving at a decision that the Sessions Court should have made amendments to the statement of claim to include the names of two raiding officers, ASP Zulkarnain Samsudin and Sergeant Jaffri Jaafar.
In restoring the decision of the Sessions Court, Justice Wahab also ordered that the statement of claim be amended to include the names of the two police officers.
The other two judges on the panel were Justices Datuk Clement Allan Skinner and Datuk Aziah Ali.
The High Court had overturned the Sessions Court’s decision after ruling that the failure of Zamri and Suhaimi to identify the individual police officers who assaulted them precluded the government from having to take responsibility.
Zamri and Suhaimi, an engineer in a factory, had filed a civil suit against the respondents on June 19, 2009 claiming that they were hit, stepped on, kicked and bashed up by the police, before they were questioned, remanded and then released.
They claimed that because of the police action, they suffered injuries, stress, odium and contempt.
On Aug 20, 2007, Nurin, a Year Two student of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Desa Setapak, was reported missing after going out alone to a night market near her house at Section 1 Wangsa Maju.
The case received wide media coverage when her body was found on Sept 17 the same year, which was 27 days after she was reported missing, in a bag, which was left in front of a business premises in Petaling Jaya.
A post-mortem report revealed that Nurin’s death was due to sexual abuse.
Zamri and Suhaimi were each awarded RM1,500 in general damages, RM30,000 in exemplary damages, and costs. Zamri was awarded an additional RM10,000 in damages.
The duo were represented by lawyers Azmer Md Saad and Mohd Yaacob Bakanali.
The respondents were represented by Senior Federal Counsel Siti Badariah Yusof and Azizan Md Arshad. – Bernama