THE Court of Appeal this morning rejected a stay application from the widow of Cradle Fund CEO Nazrin Hassan to postpone the exhumation of his body.

A three-man bench comprising Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Rhodzariah Bujang and led by justice Mohtarudin Baki ordered the exhumation to proceed with certain conditions in favour of Samirah Muzaffar.

“Puan Samirah, as wife of arwah (the late) Nazrin, was ensuring the rights of her late husband and the sanctity of his grave be respected by all parties,” her lawyer L.S. Leonard said. 

“She asked the exhumation or second post mortem or her late husband be carried out within the safeguards of the law.”

Work to exhume the remains began at the Kota Damansara Muslim cemetery this morning following the Shah Alam High Court’s order for a second autopsy.

The court has asked parties to discuss and agree on acceptable conditions for the exhumation process,” Leonard said. 

A letter dated September 5 from Samirah’s lawyers to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, sighted by The Malaysian Insight, had argued that the exhumation should be postponed until the court heard and decided on the widow’s stay application.

Failure to do so would amount to “an obstruction of justice”, the letter had said. 

Nazrin was found dead in his bedroom at home in Mutiara Damansara after the double-storey terrace house caught fire on June 14, a day before Hari Raya.

His family had said that his handphone had exploded, causing the blaze. Cradle Fund also issued a statement saying its CEO was dead of injuries attributed to an exploding handphone being charged next to the bed.

Nazrin’s older brother, Dr Malek Hassan, who saw Nazrin’s body after the first post-mortem, had told The Malaysian Insight that he had noticed a wound on the left side of the head that was too big and deep to have been caused by a blunt object like a handphone.

That observation, and with police classifying the case as murder, prompted Dr Malek to lodge a police report two weeks ago urging the authorities to exhume the body for a autopsy.

In the course of the investigations so far, police have arrested Samirah, a senior executive at the Malaysian Intellectual Property Corporation, her former husband, their two teenage sons, Nazrin’s sister-in-law and her husband for investigations. All are on the widow’s side of the family.

All have since been released on bail.

Work to exhume the remains began at the Kota Damansara Muslim cemetery this morning following the Shah Alam High Court’s order for a second autopsy.

The court has asked parties to discuss and agree on acceptable conditions for the exhumation process, Leonard said.

Mohtarudin allowed Samirah’s application for a forensic pathologist appointed by her to be present during the post-mortem. – October 8, 2018.