Ministry lawyer grills doctor on conduct in Adib inquest

Hospital Kuala Lumpur forensic expert Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi.

SHAH ALAM: The inquest into the death of Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim got off to a fiery start today with the lawyer for the housing and local government ministry questioning the conduct of the forensic doctor who had performed fireman’s post-mortem.

Lawyer Syazlin Mansor began her cross-examination of Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s (HKL) Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi with questions on his alleged failure to provide information to the ministry’s forensic expert, Dr Shahrom Abd Wahid.

She asked Hafizam whether he had been “uncooperative” in providing the post-mortem report, CT scans and other relevant documents when Shahrom came to see him at his office.

However, Hafizam said all documents and reports related to Adib were put on the desk of HKL Forensic Medicine Department head Dr Mohd Shah Mahmood.

“We gave him sufficient time to read all of them,” he said, adding that he respected Shahrom who had been his teacher in university.

Hafizam said Shahrom had contacted him and told him that he had been approached by the ministry to give his expert opinion in Adib’s case.

Syazlin then asked if Hafizam had asked Shahrom to provide his official letter of appointment from the ministry.

To this, Hafizam said Shahrom had informed him that he (Shahrom) was representing the ministry.

“How does this issue assist in our case?” he added.

But Syazlin continued to question Hafizam’s actions, including his experiment on reversing the medical van at the Subang Jaya fire and rescue station last month.

She asked Hafizam whether he had complained that he was put under the hot sun with no firemen to assist him during the experiment.

“There was no officer to tell us the do’s and don’ts at the fire station,” he said.

“What happened that day was, my medical students were scolded when we put our things on a table. There is no issue for me to bring this up.”

Conducting officer Faten Hadni Khairuddin then told coroner Rofiah Mohamad that Hafizam had given his explanations.

To this, Syazlin said she had asked the questions on the incident at the fire station as she wanted to clarify that the firemen there were out on the job.

Hafizam was also questioned by Adib’s family lawyer yesterday over his post-mortem report.

The inquest was called by the government amid conflicting claims on the cause of Adib’s death.

Adib was part of a response team sent from the Subang Jaya fire and rescue station on Nov 27, 2018 to the temple area in Seafield in answer to a call that cars had been set on fire. He died at the National Heart Institute on Dec 17.- FMT