Shuhaily pleads not guilty to injuring Special Branch officers

Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency (MCBA) director-general Shuhaily Zain was charged at the Sepang Magistrate's Court this morning with voluntarily causing hurt to two Special Branch police officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Sept 28.

He was hit with two separate charges - against one Faiz Saman and one Ekmal Sofwan Dirman.

He was alleged to have caused hurt to the two individuals around 1.27pm last month near Counter J located at level 5 of the airport.

Shuhaily, standing composed near the dock, pleaded not guilty to the charges before magistrate Khairatul Animah Jelani.

Both charges were under Section 323 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum of one year in jail or a fine up to RM2,000 or both.

Deputy public prosecutor Shahrizat Ismail proposed a bail amount of RM5,000 for each charge.

However, Shuhaily’s defence team - stacked with legal fraternity's heavyweights - requested a lower amount, given that the case is a compoundable offence.

The magistrate then ordered RM1,500 bail for each charge, totalling RM3,000 and fixed Nov 25 for case mention.

Shuhaily’s lawyers were Rosal Azimin Ahmad, Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Kitson Foong, Rafique Rashid, Yaacob Sam, Yunos Shariff, Akberdin Abdul Kader, Baljit Singh Sidhu and Badruzzaman Ishak.

Due process

Earlier, Shuhaily conveyed his gratitude to those who have shown him support over the matter.

“This empowers me and strengthens me in moving on with this process.

“This will be my last press conference about this. (Moving forward) my lawyers will be speaking on my behalf,” he told reporters briefly prior to proceedings.

A clip of the alleged altercation made the rounds on social media, with a man resembling Shuhaily seen berating two individuals, one of whom Shuhaily supposedly grabbed by the ears.

The two police personnel were said to be travel control officers at KLIA Terminal 1 at the time of the incident.

Following the video’s circulation online, Shuhaily questioned the motive behind the spread of the closed-circuit television recording, noting that the agency had also filed its own police report urging police to probe whether it was an effort to tarnish the agency’s name and his reputation.

Lawsuit underway

Separately, the lawyer for the two police officers said they will file a civil suit against Shuhaily within the next seven days.

Their lawyer, Kamal Hisham Jaffar, told a press conference today that the pair aims to seek an undetermined amount of compensation for alleged physical injuries and trauma.

"We are still awaiting the medical reports before making an assessment and determining an appropriate compensation amount," Harian Metro quoted him as saying.

He claimed that one of the officers had required psychiatric treatment after enduring severe trauma following the incident.

Kamal also said that he was providing legal services to the duo on a pro bono basis as they allegedly faced challenges in securing legal assistance due to financial constraints and "significant" disparities in rank.

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