Inquest Only If Cause Of Death Uncertain – Nazri

(Bernama) – KUALA KANGSAR — An inquest into the death of a Selangor Customs assistant director will only be conducted if the cause of death could not be determined, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Nazri Aziz.

He said a coroner’s inquest in such cases was something common under the country’s legal system.

“(The need to create a royal commission) does not arise (now) as we can’t have a parallel system because according to the law, an inquest must be held for all death cases where the cause is uncertain. It doesn’t mention about a royal commission, as the inquest takes precedence,” he told reporters here Friday.

There have been calls for the formation of a royal commission to probe the death of Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, whose body was found on a badminton court on the first floor of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office at Jalan Cochrane on Wednesday.

Nazri urged all parties to give room to the authorities to investigate the case and wait for the findings of the investigation as well as as the post-mortem examination results.

Nazri said he had received a memorandum from Perkasa, a Malay rights group, calling for the creation of a royal commission to look into Ahmad Sarbani’s death.

“They may not have understood our legal system because if they do, they wouldn’t have made such a request,” said the minister.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Zulkifli Abdullah today confirmed that a post-mortem examination found that Ahmad Sarbani had injuries which appeared to be consistent with those suffered in a fall.

He said the results of ongoing laboratory tests would be known in a week’s time.