SHAH ALAM: The coroner’s court will decide tomorrow on whether to recall the 24th witness to testify in the inquest into death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim (pix).
Coroner Rofiah Mohamad made the ruling today after hearing the submissions from Conducting Officer Faten Hadni Khairuddin and the Counsel for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) and the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia (JBPM), Syazlin Mansor.
Earlier, Faten said she had made the application to enable Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL)’s pathologist Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi to answer or rebut theories presented by the 29th witness, former forensic pathologist at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre Professor Dr Shahrom Abd Wahid.
“Dr. Hafizam has performed experiments and tested a few of Dr Shahrom’s theories, and the findings are relevant facts that should presented in court to achieve a fair decision,“ she said.
The application was opposed by Syazlin Mansor and Adib’s family lawyer Yahaya Othman.
“We believe the action of the conducting officer (Faten) to recall witness number 24 (Hafizam) to counter theories of the 29th witness (Sharom) clearly indicates that they have taken sides and are no longer neutral.
“We believe the court has enough evidence to choose which probabilty is most likely to have happened to the deceased,“ Syazlin said.
Adib was part of a nine-man firefighting team that responded to a fire at the temple where rioters were protesting its relocation on Nov 27.
During the riot, Adib sustained severe injuries and was hospitalised for three weeks, before succumbing to his injuries on Dec 17.
An inquest into his death was commissioned as there were no conclusive findings in into how Adib was wounded during the riots.
