Inquest to determine firefighter Muhammad Adib’s cause of death

KUALA LUMPUR: An inquest will be held to determine the cause of death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim during the riots at a temple in Selangor last month, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday.

He said Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, in his capacity as the public prosecutor, would direct a magistrate to conduct the inquiry under Section 339(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

“The Office of the Public Prosecutor will apply to the courts to set the date for the hearing as soon as possible and will assist the magistrate in conducting the inquest,” he said in a post yesterday on his Facebook account.

Muhammad Adib, 24, of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue station, was severely injured when he arrived in the vicinity of the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in USJ 25, Subang Jaya, early on Nov 27 to put out a car fire during the riots, which erupted purportedly over the relocation of the house of worship.

Some people claimed that he was injured in a vehicle accident while others alleged that he was assaulted by several rioters.

Muhammad Adib succumbed to his injuries on Dec 17 at the National Heart Institute ( IJN) where he was on life support.

Muhyiddin said the magistrate conducting the inquest would have wide powers under Section 328 of the Criminal Procedure Code to determine the cause of death.

The section states that ‘ the words cause of death include not only the apparent cause of death as ascertainable by inspection or post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased, but also all matters necessary to enable an opinion to be formed as to the manner in which the deceased came by his death and as to whether his death resulted in any way from, or was accelerated by, any unlawful act or omission on the part of any other person’. — Bernama