Nigerian PhD student's family wants inquest into his death

The family of a Nigerian doctorate student who died while under the Immigration Department's custody last month wants an inquest to be conducted into his death.

Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, who is representing the deceased's wife, said they have filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur Special Coroner's Court on Wednesday to initiate the inquest into Thomas Orhions Ewansiha's death.

Ewansiha was 34 when he died at the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot on July 9.

According to court document, the application was filed on behalf of Ewansiha's widow Blessing Uhunoma Eriamiator.

It said that from witnesses' accounts and circumstances surrounding the victim's death, they have reasons to suspect that Ewansiha had been beaten by immigration officers and not given due treatment for his injuries thus leading to his death.

"Besides that, we also suspect that the deceased was detained by immigration without valid justification. He was a legally documented migrant who had been residing in Malaysia for about 10 years.

"Despite the deceased having explained to the immigration that he has valid passport and visa to be in Malaysia, and that he was a PhD student at Lim Kok Wing University in Cyberjaya, the immigration had failed to check with his university and also failed to verify the validity of his passport and visa."

Rajesh said these were among the reasons why they believe that Ewansiha's detention and his subsequent death might have been caused by the Immigration Department's failure to carry out its operation according to the minimal rights accorded under United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for The Treatment of Prisoners.

"And thus, the death of the deceased must be determined through an inquest proceeding so as to ensure justice is served for his family," he said.

Three days after the victim's death, Immigration director-general Khairul Dzaimee Daud told Malaysiakini that there was no breach of the standard operating procedure (SOP) in the case. 

He had said then that Ewansiha was detained on July 4 during an immigration operation in Desa Aman Puri Apartment, and subsequently placed under remand for 14 days to verify his documents and seek confirmation from the college on his attendance record and details of his course.

Khairul also revealed that 20 others were detained during the same operation launched following complaints about alleged "misbehaviour" of foreigners in the area.

On July 14, he told Bernama that the department's internal investigation into the death found no element of the deceased being physically assaulted. - Mkini