"I'm not the Ambank shooter's lawyer" - Surendran

“I have never said that I would be defending the Ambank shooter. I have never made such a statement anywhere.”

This was the clarification made by Parti Keadilan Rakyat lawyer N. Surendran to Astro AWANI when contacted earlier this evening.

He claimed that the rumour which has been going around for the past couple of days about him being the lawyer to represent the security guard who shot dead Ambank operations officer Norazita Abu Talib in a robbery last Thursday, was initially started by controversial blogger Papa Gomo.

“On the day before yesterday (Thursday), blogger Papa Gomo had, on one of his social media channels, claimed that I was going to defend the Ambank shooter.

“That claim is entirely baseless and untrue. That Thursday night itself I denied the claim on my Twitter and my Facebook.

“For the record, I have nothing to do with the suspect or his case. I have never met the suspect or his family. There is absolutely no truth to this claim. I have never commented on the issue or made a statement anywhere,” said Surendran.

The human rights lawyer’s clarification came following a comment made by Deputy Inspector General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin that it was ‘not very smart’ of Surendran to claim that he would defend the Ambank shooter.

“I view it as a stupid comment. We ask him to follow us to the ground and witness for himself the risks involved when facing a criminal, and not simply give stupid comments,” Mohd Bakri reportedly said.

Surendran told AWANI that despite the top cop making the statement, the police did not contact him to clarify the matter.

“No one from the police force called me up to check if it was true that I had made the statement,” he said.

When asked on the possibility of him taking up the suspect’s case after this, if he were to be approached by the suspect’s family to do so, the PKR vice-president said: “No, I will not get involved in this case.”

Social media reports previously alleged that Surendran had claimed he was confident the security guard was under a lot of stress and therefore it was his duty to defend the suspect, and even help him escape the gallows if the latter was found guilty of murder.

Surendran said it could be possible that he was thrust in the limelight due to the recent ‘shoot to kill’ issue where he had been vocal about his stand against the police shooting dead some criminals.