Adib’s family has failed to give details on AG’s ‘interference’, says federal counsel

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas.

SHAH ALAM: The Attorney-General Chambers today said Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim’s family had failed to give details of their complaint against him for allegedly interrupting the late fireman’s inquest.

In objecting to the bid by Adib‘s family to get the court’s green light for committal proceedings against AG Tommy Thomas, senior federal counsel S Narkunavathy said the family must provide full disclosure on how the AG’s media statement on May 28 showed that former housing and local government ministry lawyer Syazlin Mansor was in a ”conflicted position”.

“The law requires the applicant to set out the material facts fairly and in full in his statement on the alleged contempt he complains about.

“However, the applicant has failed to discharge this requirement under the law,” Narkunavathy said, referring to Adib’s brother, Mohd Asraf, as the applicant who sought the committal proceeding.

Without full disclosure, she said the family cannot establish a prima facie case against Thomas.

The government lawyer added that only with full disclosure can the AG raise his objections to the contempt bid.

Adib’s family had sought to cite Thomas for contempt, accusing the AG of interfering in the inquest into the fireman’s death.

They also claimed that Thomas had attempted to stop Syazlin from exercising her duty as a lawyer.

Narkunavathy also said the family did show reasons how former deputy public prosecutor Hamdan Hamzah’s affidavit, on April 3, had led to Thomas taking a stand in the inquest.

Hamdan, in the affidavit, had said evidence by Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s pathologists Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hashim and Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood showed Adib was not assaulted in the incident.

“There is no where in Asraf’s statement that his affidavit tantamounts to disrupting the inquest.

“In fact, the then hearing proceeded with Syazlin representing the ministry,” she said, adding that the task force also withdrew its application to participate at the inquest.

She added Syazlin only withdrew as the ministry’s lawyer on May 27 and her withdrawal caused a lot of confusion and speculation.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for Adib’s family, Haniff Khatri Abdulla, argued that under the jurisprudence for inquest proceeding, the parties involved should not take a stand on the deceased’s cause of death.

“Only the judge or coroner can take his or her stand on the cause of death,” he said.

Haniff added Thomas was seen as taking a stand in this inquest and ”shutting his mind” in assisting the court.

“They (AG’s Chambers) complained that our statement to seek committal proceedings is vague.

“We had listed all the particulars, including the contemnor, and chronology of events,” he said.

Coroner Rofiah Mohamad set Aug 27 to decide on whether to allow the family to proceed with the contempt bid. - FMT