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Wednesday October 3, 2012

Revenge motive in Lawas gang fight that claimed the life of teenager, say police

By RINTOS MAIL
rintos@thestar.com.my


KUCHING: The police have clarified that the gang fight in Lawas recently was not related to abuse of illicit drugs.

State Narcotics Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Moses Agat said the fight broke out between the two groups because of revenge.

He said urine tests were conducted on the suspects involved in the tragedy and all of them were found negative for drugs.

Supt Moses said the criminal record review also showed that, except for one, all the suspects had never been arrested for any drug-related offences.

He, however, said the case of one of the suspects, a 24-year-old, was solved on July 29, 2010 where the suspect was fined RM2,000 or five years’ imprisonment (he failed to pay the fine).

The suspect was also placed under police observation for two years.

“From our further investigation and intelligence information, this group had never been involved in drug activity as had been reported in the media recently.

“Before the incident, the group had been involved in small fights within the Lawas district and there was no legal action taken against them,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

On Sept 21, a 19-year-old teenager was killed during the fight involving 30 people.

Following the murder, the Lawas community had organised a peaceful protest, marching to the police station to submit a memorandum demanding justice for the victim, Edwin Singa Pelipus.

Supt Moses said it was also not right to say that drug abuse, especially among night party-goers, in Lawas was serious.

He said there were only three night entertainment outlets opera-ting in Lawas — one is a KTV while the other two are pubs.

Supt Moses said since last year till now, the Narcotics Crime Investi-gation Department in Lawas had inspected the three outlets four times, where 30 people were made to undergo urine test.

Preliminary results had shown that all tested negative for drugs.

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