AN inquest will be held soon to determine fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim’s cause of death, said Muhyiddin Yassin.

The home minister said Attorney-General Tommy Thomas had decided on the course of action.

“The attorney-general informed me that he will act on his powers as public prosecutor under Section 339(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to instruct a magistrate to conduct an inquest to determine the cause of death.

“The prosecution will apply for the court to set an urgent hearing date and will assist the magistrate in carrying out the inquest,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Muhyiddin said the magistrate presiding over the inquest had wide powers under Section 328 of the CPC to determine the possible cause of death.

He said this included deliberating on the cause of death and whether Adib’s death was caused by or accelerated by any actions or inaction by any other party. 

Adib, 24, was a member of the Emergency Medical Rescue Services of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue station.

He died at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur at 9.41pm on December 17 after he was believed to have been assaulted during rioting at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya, Selangor, on November 27. 

Yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Dr Lee Boon Chye had said the final report on the cause of Adib’s death would only be ready next month.

The wait was due to the outcome of Adib’s blood test, he said, which was needed to complete the final report.

“Normally, a blood test will take about one month. In the US, the report for the deaths of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson also took time.

“Pathologist knows the cause of death but the blood test would corroborate the findings,” he had said. – December 27, 2018.