Lawyer to call friends of dead Nigerian PhD student to testify

The lawyer representing the family of a Nigerian student who died in Immigration Department custody in July last year plans to call the victim's friends, who were detained together with him, to testify in the inquest into the death.

According to lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan, friends of the victim Thomas Orhions Ewansiha claimed that Ewansiha had been asking for medical assistance for three days prior to his death on July 9 last year.

"There were around 10 other detainees who shared the same cell with the victim, while in the opposite cell there were another 10 to 15 detainees.

"Witnesses have said that he (Ewansiha) had been shouting and shaking the grill of his cell, asking to see a doctor for three days before his death," Rajesh told reporters outside the Kuala Lumpur Coroner's Court this afternoon.

This morning was the beginning of the inquest to determine the cause of Ewansiha's death before Coroner Mahyon Talib. Inquest handling officer Nurliyana Mohd Jafri informed the court that she intended to call a total of 30 witnesses to assist the court.

Rajesh said the list of witnesses provided by Nurliyana included foreign-sounding names, which he believed included some detainees, but he confirmed that none of Ewansiha's friends, who were arrested together with him during the Immigration Department raid in Kepong, was among the witnesses listed.

Ewansiha, 34, who was a PhD student at a private college in the Klang Valley, died at the Immigration Department Detention Depot in Bukit Jalil in the early morning of July 9, after being arrested five days earlier.

The victim's wife, Blessing Uhunoma Eriamiator (above), had since called for an inquest into Ewansiha's death. The inquest hearing was then registered at the court in November.

Rajesh said they might also apply for a subpoena from the court to obtain security camera recordings at the detention depot to shed more light on the inquest.

Images of depot medicine storage, victim's legs recorded

Meanwhile, the inquest session, which was held for about three hours today, saw three police personnel called to the witness stand to testify, including two photographers who recorded images at the scene and during Ewansiha's post-mortem at UKM Hospital.

Corporal Kamarulzaman Jamuie told the court that he took 15 photographs of the scene and Ewansiha's body on July 9.

These include two shots that focused on the victim's legs, which showed a flesh wound on the right leg. What caused the wound is yet to be established in the court.

According to Kamarulzaman, he returned to the detention depot days later under the order of investigating officer, inspector Noorsuhana Shamsudin, to take photographs of medicine storage at the facility.

However, he could not remember the date when he returned to take the photos.

Kamarulzaman testified that he also took a photograph of a bottle of pills, which he was told was the medicine given to the victim before his death.

"I don't remember (the name), but the staff was a medical officer at the immigration (depot)," he said.

Earlier, another police personnel, corporal Wan Mohamad Fuad Wan Muda, who was attached to the Cheras District police control centre, told the court that he received information on the incident via a phone call at 12.42am on July 9.

According to Fuad, the caller, whom he identified as Cik Ashikin from the immigration depot, said there was a male detainee found unconscious and that he had been pronounced dead by a medical assistant from the UKM Hospital.

The inquest will continue on Jan 7. - Mkini