KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 — An animal activist and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) failed their bid to obtain leave from the High Court today to challenge the Attorney-General’s (AG) decision for refusing to take further action on a police report in a monkey torture case.
Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid, in dismissing the leave applications by Dr Kartini Farah Abdul Rahim and Hak Asasi Hidupan Liar Malaysia Global (Hidup), ruled that the applicants had failed to provide a compelling prima facie evidence to prove their grounds in challenging the AG’s decision.
"The applicants must provide evidence beyond a screenshot of a group telegram, google drive consisting of the tortured baby monkeys' videos, a police report, and a BBC article to overcome this presumption," the judge said when delivering the decision via a Zoom proceeding.
Dr Kartini and Hidup filed their judicial review applications on June 16 naming the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) and the Malaysian government as the first to third respondents.
The woman applied for an order to set aside the AGC's decision dated April 5 this year for no further action (NFA) to be taken on the police report made by her, in addition to applying for an order instructing the AGC to charge the individual who she allegedly tortured and killed baby monkeys under an appropriate law.
Judge Ahmad Kamal, in his decision, said the applicants failed to rebut the presumption of the legality of the AG in exercising his power and also failed to show that the AG had decided with mala fide.
“As this nature of the application requires a higher standard of review, it is my view that the applicants have failed to pass this hurdle," he said.
Judge Ahmad Kamal also said the irregularity of the applicants' application in terms of naming the wrong party and failure to correctly identify the date of the impugned decision would have a big effect on the application.
“Therefore the failure of the applicants to observe this requirement is fatal. The court should not be made to quash a decision as sought by the applicants when the date of the impugned decision itself is inaccurate,” he added.
The application seeking the court to declare that the decision made by the AG dated April 5 was unreasonable and procedurally improper.
“Having examined the caused papers, it is to be highlighted that the date used in the applicant's application was the date of the PDRM's letter.
"The letter written by PDRM entails the details that the deputy public prosecutor had classified the first applicant's police report as 'No Further Action'. It is not the exact date when the deputy public prosecutor made the said decision," Judge Ahmad Kamal said.
In the application, Dr Kartini claimed that on January 20, she received information from two animal lovers associations from the United Kingdom and the United States about a group that celebrated the torture of monkeys as what the said individual had been doing, and that the group has a large following on Telegram.
On the same date (January 20), she lodged a police report and during the police investigation, the man admitted to torturing the baby monkeys.
However, Dr Kartini claimed the police released the individual without any charges being brought against him.
At today’s proceedings, the applicants were represented by lawyer Pavitra Loganathan, while the AGC was represented by Senior Federal Counsel (SFC) Ahmad Hanir Hambaly.
— Bernama
