Remand Prisoner Dies Awaiting Treatment In Hospital Wife Files Report

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Iqbal’s wife Nursyamsiah Yakathali (left) with M Manoharan and her mother-in-law Salimah Radha Abdullah after filing the police report. (M Manoharan pic)PETALING JAYA: A remand prisoner at the Sungai Buloh Prison, Mohd Iqbal Abdullah, is reported to have died at Tanjung Karang hospital this morning, with his lawyer claiming that it was a result of negligence by the authorities.
Iqbal’s lawyer M Manoharan told FMT that his client had died while waiting for a scheduled appointment with a specialist at the hospital. Iqbal, aged 29, had become unconscious and died before the specialist could see him, and the cause of death was not immediately known.
He said Iqbal’s wife Nursyamsiah Yakathali lodged a police report about her husband’s death at the Gombak police station at 5pm today. The couple have two daughters aged five and one.
FMT is attempting to get a response from the prisons department and the Gombak police chief.
Mohd Iqbal Abdullah, 29, a school van driver, had been arrested on a murder charge.Manoharan said Iqbal, a school van driver, had been arrested and charged for alleged murder and two other minor offences in September. He had been arrested with two of his brothers, who are now in Pokok Sena prison in Kedah having been detained under the Prevention of Crime Act.
However, Iqbal’s case had been postponed several times for unknown reasons following his remand after being denied bail.
Manoharan said Iqbal had been suffering from stomach problems and unknown illnesses after his arrest.
“According to his wife, who last saw him in court in February this year, he was suffering from diarrhea and vomiting. He had become very thin, but he was a very healthy person prior to his arrest,” Manoharan said.
“We want to find out what illness he had and what was his cause of death. We need to know how the authorities have been treating him, since he was in prison for more than six months.”
Manoharan urged Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat to look into pending murder cases that had been unnecessarily postponed on what he called flimsy grounds.
He said the investigating officer in Iqbal’s case and the prisons director should be dismissed. - FMT

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