SHAH ALAM, March 26 — Hospital Kuala Lumpur medical forensics department officer Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi told the Coroner’s Court today he was excoriated online over his expert testimony in the inquest of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim last week.
“I was criticised and considered to be lying in my testimony last week by people on social media,” he told Judge Rofiah Mohamad who is sitting as coroner for the inquest here.
He said he was merely trying to get to the truth behind Adib's cause of death.
Dr Ahmad, who conducted an autopsy on Adib, testified last week that Adib’s injuries were inconsistent with assault as alleged.
Instead, he concluded that the seven broken ribs may be from being hit by an Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) vehicle as it was backing out during the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple riots in Subang Jaya last year.
Following his testimony, a Facebook user known as “Cik Miera”, who claimed to be a nurse at the National Heart Institute (IJN) where Adib was warded, accused Dr Ahmad of lying in his testimony.
The person caused a controversy over the weekend when she went on social media to claim she treated Adib’s wounds when he was transferred from the Subang Jaya Medical Centre to IJN and knew the truth about his death.
“Dear Doctor, if all staff could give statements, I will be the first who will stand up and say that it is not by accident. His injury was caused by violence, from force. We saw the wound, we treated him. We saw the bruises all over his body and many things that I can’t tell here,” the Facebook post read which has since been deleted.
Today, Dr Ahmad was asked to read out and reply to the person’s allegations by government lawyer Hamdan Hamzah, but declined.
“I don’t wish to reply, I appeal to find the truth. If anyone else has any information on this that I did not find during my examination, I ask that the coroner get them to give testimony in court,” he said.
Instead he maintained today that his examination of Adib's remains did not uncover any sign that the fireman had been physically assaulted during the riot.
Muhammad Adib was critically injured in the early morning of November 27 after he and his team members from the Subang Jaya fire station responded to an emergency call at the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple where a riot was taking place.
The fireman was taken to Subang Jaya Medical Centre after he was found injured, before being transferred to IJN for further treatment, where he succumbed to his wounds on December 17.
