SEREMBAN: The father of a 15-month-old toddler found dead at a childcare centre here has been ordered by a Sessions Court not to post any comments or court documents on social media or any other platform on the inquest.
Judge Rushan Lutfi Mohamed told Yuseri Yusoff that he was prohibited from doing so until the inquest concluded.
Rushan had earlier fixed Sept 10, Nov 10 and 17 for the inquest at the Coroner’s Court to establish the cause of Nour Rania Asyifaa Yuseri’s death.
He made the decision following an application by the inquest coordinating team led by state prosecution unit head Badius Zaman Ahmad.
Badius Zaman was assisted by Husni Fairos Ramly.
“The court hereby orders the father of the deceased not to share any information or documents in any social media or other media platform till the inquest ends.
“The court hereby grants an interim gag order on this till the written order is issued,” Rushan said.
Husni Fairos had earlier applied for a gag order to prevent Yuseri from posting comments on Facebook or social media on the role of the court, the police and the Attorney General’s office to ensure the inquest proceedings went on smoothly.
Nour Rania was found dead by her babysitter in her cloth cradle about an hour after she was put to sleep in a room at the centre on Feb 22.
The babysitter told police she found the child’s head dangling over the side of the cradle when she went to check on her.
She reportedly tried to resuscitate the girl but was unsuccessful.
The toddler was rushed to the Sendayan health clinic but doctors failed to revive her.
A post-mortem revealed that her death was due to compression of the neck.
There were 15 children including the deceased, aged between six months and seven years, at the centre when the incident happened.
Two babysitters, aged 27 and 39, were also present at the centre, which has been operating from a single-storey corner house since the end of 2019.
The centre, however, was not equipped with CCTV.
Yuseri later told reporters he was not happy with the initial findings and asked police to investigate the matter under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
Muhammad Amin Anuar, who is keeping a watching brief for Yuseri’s family, told the court that his team had among others received two lists containing the names of 28 potential witnesses to be called to testify at the inquest.
He said his team would also be calling their own witnesses to assist the court during the proceedings.
He was assisted by Gaithri Thomas.
Thomas then told the court that when they went through the list, the team did not find the name of the photographer who took pictures of the deceased.
“Not calling the photographer will defeat the purpose of this inquest,” she told the court.
Badius Zaman then told the court that his team had no objections and would also call the photographer to testify.
