Rizky Amelia – Malaysian police have brutally shot Indonesian citizens at least three times in recent years, a nongovernmental group said over the weekend.

Anis Hidayah, the executive director of Migrant Care, said at least eight Indonesians were shot at close range and killed by Malaysian police on three different occasions, prior to the killing of three migrant workers from Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, last month.

"Indonesians have been brutally shot to death by the Malaysian police without due process of law several times now. However, while the government sent protest letters to Malaysia, there has been no investigation against the perpetrators, and the extra-judicial killings continue," Anis said on Saturday.

Migrant Care said that in March 2010, three Indonesians were gunned down by Malaysian police. This happened about a year after two Indonesians were shot and killed.

In 2005, Malaysian police also shot and killed three Indonesian workers. Malaysian authorities said that the three conducted robberies, and were shot because they had resisted arrest.

The latest incident sparked outrage, partly because the story sounds familiar.

Malaysian police claimed that the dead migrant workers from the most recent incident were suspected of robbery in Port Dickson, and were shot by police in pursuit.

Many in Indonesia doubted the version of events, while the family of the three raised suspicion about organ harvesting after seeing the bodies. Each body was found with stitches around the chest and stomach.

The National Police and Foreign Ministry dismissed the organ-harvesting theory, but some lawmakers and activists remain doubtful. "Even if their claim of a robbery is true, they should not have been shot from close range," Anis said.

As early as December 2010, Malaysian human rights activists voiced concern of the "horrifying" numbers of killings by Malaysian police. Of the 279 killed over the past decade, 113 were Indonesian nationals.

The activists cited police data produced during a trial that showed 279 alleged criminals, including 61 ethnic Malaysian Indians, 42 Malay Muslims and 113 Indonesians, were fatally shot over a period of nine years, leading to speculation that certain ethnic groups were being targeted.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said that the government continues to demand an investigation into the killings, including the 2010 case.

On the killings of three migrant workers from Lombok, several lawmakers and activists said they plan to sue Malaysian authorities through an international court.

Teuku Rezasyah, a law expert at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, said the government, the House and civil groups should unite if they want to file a lawsuit against Malaysian police.

"Filing a lawsuit is easy. The hard part is bringing the government, lawmakers and NGOs together to legally fight Malaysia. "Some lawmakers, for instance, could have a different stance to their colleagues, weakening the motion," he said.