Expert: M’sia duty-bound to probe suspicious death

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is dutybound to investigate death under suspicious circumstances that happened in the country, regardless of the status of the deceased, said Datuk N. Sivananthan of the International Criminal Court List of Counsel in the Hague, the Netherlands.

Malaysia’s Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code required that such death be investigated. And failure to do so was as good as allowing a crime to take place and for the perpetrators to get away with it, he added.

“It is important to determine the cause of death because if there is foul play, it becomes a murder investigation.

“It is the responsibility of the police to determine if there are any suspects involved.

“This is regardless of whether the person holds a diplomatic passport or not,” he said when asked if North Korea has the right to stop Malaysia from carrying out an autopsy on Kim Jong-nam, who held a diplomatic passport.

In a report by Pyongyang’s staterun KCNA news agency carried by Reuters on Thursday, North Korea accused Malaysia of breaking international law by conducting autopsies on a person bearing a diplomatic passport.

Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is believed to have been fatally poisoned by two women at the KLIA2 on Feb 13 while waiting to board a flight to Macau.

Malaysia has denied North Korea’s request for the body to be handed over to its embassy, saying that it would only be released to the next of kin.

Asked whether the North Korean Embassy has the right to demand for Jong-nam’s body, Sivananthan said it did not, until the cause of death has been ascertained.

“Once a conclusion has been made, then the body can be released,” he said.

Asked if North Korea was compelled to send the suspected killers to Malaysia for further investigation, Sivananthan said Malaysia did not have an extradition treaty with North Korea and it was not legally duty-bound to send the suspects over, even though it has a moral duty to do so.

On whether there was diplomatic immunity for the diplomat suspect that police wanted North Korea to hand over to assist in investigation, he said the suspect cannot refuse to answer questions but he may claim diplomatic immunity if charged.

“The only thing Malaysia can do is to expel him.

“But based on good practice, a home country usually would waive diplomatic immunity when its diplomat commits a criminal offence,” he said.

On Wednesday, Malaysian police named a North Korean diplomat and a state airline official as persons of interest in the murder of Jongnam.

On North Korea’s allegation that Malaysia has broken international law by conducting autopsies on a person bearing a diplomatic passport, a former Wisma Putra diplomat said the question did not arise.

“If police or other authorities in Malaysia suspect the possible involvement of criminal elements in the death, in order to complete the investigation, then an autopsy must be done because the priority would be to follow Malaysia’s laws.

“The laws of the host country must be followed, and they cannot demand whether a post-mortem can or cannot be done.

“They can submit a request but it is our prerogative on whether to conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death,” he added.