Karuna's death in custody - withdraw appeal, urges lawyers group

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) has urged the Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to withdraw the prosecution's appeal to overturn the coroner's verdict that police detainee P Karuna Nithi's death in 2013 was due to beatings by police and other detainees.

The hearing of the appeal is expected to take place in Putrajaya on Feb 21.

The engineer died in custody on June 1, 2013, at the Tampin police district headquarters, a day before the family could raise money to post bail for him after he was charged on May 31 with "causing hurt" to his wife.

Forensic pathologist Dr Sharifah Safoorah had concluded that Karuna (above) died from a fatty change in his liver but in November 2013 an inquest was ordered following the questionable post-mortem report as well as public outcry.

The verdict delivered by Coroner Jagjit Singh in 2015 concluded that Karuna's death was caused by multiple injuries amounting to 49 physical assaults and abuses including the use of blunt objects by the perpetrators comprising police officers and other detainees in the lock-up where Karuna was detained.

Other causes were the failure by the authorities to provide the necessary medical care and failure of police officers to stop other detainees from abusing the deceased.

Police CCTV recordings from Karuna's lock-up showed him being assaulted by policemen and other detainees while in the cell.

The public prosecutor later filed to re-open the inquest and the coroner maintained the same decision in 2016.

Then Attorney-General Chamber's then applied to the High Court for a revision of the coroner's decision but it was dismissed which led to AGC appealing to the Court of Appeal against the High Court's decision.

LFL executive director Latheefa Koya (above) questioned the AGC's decision to appeal.

"The inquest is where you want to find out the truth. You (Tommy Thomas) are supposed to find out the truth. But the manner in which the appeal is being pursued is as if you are trying to defend someone.

"Who are you defending?" she said, adding that LFL had twice sent letters to the AGC, one in August 2018 and the other last month, asking them to reconsider the appeal.

Latheefa reminded the AGC that it should act as a guardian of public interest and take all cases regarding death in custody seriously.

"They should not act as the defender of public authorities to help them escape liability. We are asking them to withdraw the appeal and start questioning the perpetrators," she said at a media conference at the LFL office in Petaling Jaya today.

Latheefa said there WAS a volume of evidence including testimonies of 45 witnesses, 100 photographs of the post-mortem and notably the CCTV recordings showing THE abuse against Karuna.

Malaysiakini has contacted Tommy Thomas for comment.

Karuna's brother P Elam Sezhian (above, left), 50, who was present at the press conference, said he was perplexed with AGC's action to appeal.

"We are so sad and angry with the AG and the new government. I don't know what the AG wants. I want justice as it has been more than five years and there's no action against those responsible for my brother's death," he said.  - Mkini