Federal Court adjourns govt's leave bid in custodial death case

 

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court adjourned the hearing of the government and police's application for leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's ruling holding them liable for the custodial death of a gravedigger in 2019.

The application was scheduled to be heard by a three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang, Datuk Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali and Datuk Azmi Ariffin.

However, the proceedings were adjourned after the panel proposed that the case be heard together with another matter involving a death by suicide in detention, as both cases involve similar questions of law. 

The court fixed July 21 for case management for further directions.

In the notice of motion, the government and the police sought leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision on Jan 26 this year which upheld the High Court’s ruling that held them liable for the death of Mohd Fadzrin Zaidi. 

In their application, the government and the police proposed two questions of law for the Federal Court to consider.

Fadzrin was arrested by police during a drug raid on Nov 20, 2019 and remanded for seven days. He was placed in a lockup at the Seberang Perai Utara District Police Headquarters, where he was found hanging in his cell in the early hours of the following day.

In 2022, Fadzrin’s mother Fadhelah Othman filed a suit at the Georgetown High Court against the police and the government over her son’s death.

In May 2024, the High Court allowed her lawsuit, ruling that the police were negligent in failing to prevent Fadzrin, 29, from committing suicide while in custody, and the government was vicariously liable for negligence.

The High Court awarded Fadhelah damages of RM147,600 and RM50,000 in legal costs.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the government and police’s appeal to set aside the High Court's decision which held them liable for  Fadzrin’s death but reduced the damages to RM97,600. 

The court upheld the award of the damages of RM57,600 for loss of dependency, RM30,000 for pain and suffering and RM10,000 in special damages but set aside the RM50,000 in aggravated damages previously awarded by the High Court.

The Court of Appeal also dismissed a cross-appeal by Fadhelah seeking an increase in aggravated and dependency damages. 

At the proceedings in the Federal Court today, Senior Federal Counsels Zureen Elina Mohd Dom and Nur Ezdiani Roleb acted for the government and the police while lawyers M. Visvanathan, V. Sanjay Nathan, Pushan Qin Nathan represented Fadhelah.- Bernama