Second post-mortem on CEO’s remains is under way
PETALING JAYA: The remains of Cradle Fund chief executive officer Nazrin Hassan have been exhumed at the Kota Damansara Muslim Cemetery and a second postmortem is under way.
The exhumation process began at 9am and ended at about 12.45pm yesterday.
Under heavy police escort, the remains were transported to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, where the second autopsy will be held.
Selangor police chief Comm Datuk Mazlan Mansor said the exhumation process was done based on strict procedures according to Islamic and conventional laws.
“The second postmortem will be conducted straight away but we don’t know when it will be concluded or when the remains will be reburied,” he said.
The focus of the murder investigation would be based on the results of the second postmortem, Comm Mazlan added.
Nazrin, 45, died in a fire at his doublestorey house on June 14. He was found with 30% burns on his body.
Police reclassified the case as murder following a forensic investigation by the Fire and Rescue Department.
Nazrin’s older brother Dr Malek Hassan subsequently sought for Nazrin’s remains to be exhumed for a second postmortem.
“I was told the cause of death was due to a phone blast. I am a medical doctor with 30 years of experience and I felt the cause of death is not right,” he had said then.
Yesterday, vehicles bearing the logo of several agencies, including that of the Selangor Mufti Department, the police Forensic Unit as well as the Selangor Islamic Religious Department, were seen leaving the cemetery.
Dr Malek as well as lawyers for Nazrin’s widow Samirah Muzaffar, 43, were also seen leaving the premises.
Earlier yesterday in Putrajaya, Court of Appeal judge Justice Mohtarudin Baki dismissed Samirah’s bid for a stay of an order obtained by the police to exhume the body on the grounds that there was no merit in her application.
He said a pathologist appointed by Samirah could be present during the second autopsy so long as it did not disturb police investigations. Lawyer L.S. Leonard, who represented Samirah, said his client and her family fully support the investigation into Nazrin’s death.
“However, it is pertinent to note that the exhumation of a deceased’s body is a serious matter from the legal point of view as well as Islamic rights, reference is made to the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam,” he said in a statement.