Dead Bersih marcher’s kin demand inquest

By Syed Mu’az Syed Putra | August 01, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 — The family of ex-soldier Baharuddin Ahmad, the sole Bersih 2.0 marcher who died on July 9, filed a notice at the High Court here today demanding an inquest to investigate the circumstances leading to his death.

At a press conference later, Baharuddin’s widow Rosni Melan said the notice was filed as the police had refused to initiate special investigation proceedings to probe her husband’s death, despite the seven-day deadline she had issued last month. The deadline expired on July 26.

“Today, I directed my lawyer to file the notice demanding an inquest to investigate my husband’s death as soon as possible.

“My purpose is sincere. I accept God’s will but my family and I need to know how he died… who and which party was responsible and to what extent is that responsibility,” she said.

To court notice was filed today through law firm Patick Dass & Co.

The 55-year-old Rosni also claimed that her husband never had any serious illnesses, including any heart-related ailment, which could have led to his sudden death during the Bersih 2.0 rally in the capital.

Instead, she said Baharuddin had been a very healthy and active man.

“There have been many accusations made over my husband’s death but what I know and the information I have shows otherwise. My husband was always healthy before this and there were no signs of any serious ailments,” she said, adding that she was still waiting for the post mortem report.

Police have absolved themselves over Baharuddin’s death, claiming that the ex-soldier had succumbed to heart failure and not tear gas attacks or water cannons.

Baharuddin was found unconscious near the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) on the day of the rally and was pronounced dead later at Hospital Kuala Lumpur. He was said to have collapsed during the haze of confusion following the bombardment of chemicals by riot police attempting to disperse the thousands who had gathered for the rally.

When asked about the CCTV recording that the police had played to show Baharuddin’s location, Rosni said it was hard to tell if the man in the video was her husband.

“The video was not clear, I could not identify (the man),” she said.

When insisting that the police were responsible for Baharuddin’s death, internal security and public order director Datuk Salleh Mat Rashid had screened footage of the rally to the media to prove his claim.

The recording showed Baharuddin entering Avenue K centre and was found lying down there moments later, disputing previous reports stating that he died during a scuffle with the police at KLCC.

“Post-mortem found that there were no physical injuries… it was a heart attack. But the cause of death is ‘pending lab analysis’,” said Salleh, who added that an ambulance took 17 minutes to arrive and attend to Baharuddin.