Adib inquest: Motion to stay adjourned to a later date

PUTRAJAYA: The hearing of a motion to stay the inquest into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim has been adjourned to a later date.

The motion will now be heard together with the appeal by the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple task force to be an interested party in the inquest and motion by the Attorney General's Chambers to strike out the application to stay and to dismiss the appeal by the task force.

Court of Appeal adjourned the hearing on Monday (March 4) to give time to lawyers representing the task force, headed by counsel M. Visvanathan, to reply to two affidavits recently filed by lawyer

Syazlin Mansor - who is representing the Housing and Local Government Ministry and lawyer Mohd Kamaruzaman A. Wahab - who is representing Muhammad Adib's family.

The two affidavits were filed in to support the AG's Chambers' motion.

The three-member bench, led by judge Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid adjourned the hearing to give time to Visvanathan to reply to the affidavits.

Visvanathan told the court that they only received the two affidavits this morning.

"We'll adjourn both motions for a later date to be fixed, to be heard together with appeal.

"Parties in the meantime are allowed to file any further affidavit deemed necessary," said Umi Kalthum.

Visvanathan, meanwhile, said that the affidavits by Syazlin and Kamaruzaman were unprecedented in Malaysian legal history.

"This is unprecedented it should not be allowed.

"They can sit in agreement with the AG's Chambers privately, but they cannot file an affidavit, as it gives the impression that they are against us being in the inquest and that raises questions," he told reporters outside the court.

The hearing for the motion to stay the inquest was earlier postponed on Feb 22 to today by the same three-member bench, which include judges Datuk Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Datuk Stephen Chung Hian Guan, to give time to the AG's Chambers to reply to an affidavit from Visvanathan's team.

The Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple task force and 50 devotees of the temple had earlier failed in their bid to be an interested party and participate in the inquest, which is being held at Shah Alam Sessions Court.

Their bid was dismissed by judge Rofiah Mohamad, who sits as coroner for the inquest, and later by Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Abdul Karim Abdul Rahman.

The inquest was ordered by Attorney General Tommy Thomas in accordance with Section 339 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Muhammad Adib, 24, was critically injured on Nov 27, when he and his team members from the Subang Jaya fire station responded to an emergency call at the temple where riots were happening that day.

He was taken to Subang Jaya Medical Centre before being transferred to National Heart Institute (IJN) for further treatment.

He passed away at IJN on Dec 17.