Can postmortem be done on death occurring outside Malaysia?

KUCHING: A case law on whether the High Court has the power to compel the director of the state Health Department to conduct a postmortem under the Criminal Procedure Code for a death that occurred outside Malaysia was ordered to be produced yesterday.

Judicial Commissioner Celestina Stuel Galid made the order to counsel of the plaintiff, the family of the late Chung Soon Teck, who made an application for a postmortem to be conducted on the deceased.

Wilfred Yap, who represented the plaintiff, said the first defendant, the state Commissioner of Police, had rejected the application to conduct the procedure.

He said the police had submitted to the court that they had no power to give the order under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).

The police, however, said there was no objection for the second defendant to conduct the postmortem on Chung.

Chung, 48, a salesman, suspected to be involved in drug trafficking, was shot dead by Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency ( BNN) last year.

Chung’s wife Tan Lee San made the application for the procedure be conducted to ascertain the cause of death, a report of the appearance of the body as well as the conclusions that could be drawn from the result.

It was reported that the victim, suspected to be carrying 3kgs of syabu heading to Pontianak through Entikong, was shot dead in his bid to escape on Nov 18.

Chung was said to be in Indonesia for a vacation with three Indonesian friends.

Yap further said the post mortem would only be conducted on the deceased by the second defendant if there’s an order under the CPC.

The case was adjourned to Feb 1.