KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Three cellphone salesmen who beat up a jobless man for alleged shoplifting in Low Yat Plaza last month were fined RM1,800 (S$635) each for the attack.

Low Leong Seng, 29, Eric Chan Weng, 23, and Soo Weng Hing, 26, were jointly charged with causing hurt to Shahrul Anuar Abdul Aziz, 22, at the popular IT mall on July 11.

The statement of facts showed that Shahrul accompanied his friend Mohamad Khairul Azmi Mazlan, 22, to a shop at the mall to look for a cellphone but they did not find what they wanted.

The friends then split up.

Khairul had taken an escalator down to the ground floor when he suddenly heard a commotion. He heard people shouting that a man had stolen a cellphone and asking for help to catch the culprit.

Upon reaching the scene, Khairul saw Shahrul being beaten up by a group of workers from the Oppo mobile phone shop and he tried to help his friend.

However, the group accused him of abetting Shahrul in the theft and set upon him as well.

The three salesmen pleaded guilty to the charge yesterday and paid up the fine.

On July 14, Shahrul had claimed trial to accusations of stealing a Lenovo S860 smartphone, valued at RM800, from Oppo.

His case has been fixed for mention on Friday .

Following the brawl at Oppo, Khairul and Shahrul reportedly returned to the plaza located in downtown Kuala Lumpur with a group of seven men and they attacked the people who had helped to nab them.

The alleged theft escalated into a racial brawl, forcing riot police to step in and Malaysian leaders to condemn the violence in a bid to defuse what threatened to spiral into riots, pitting the Malay majority against the economically better-off Chinese.