Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT) chairman M Visvanathan said the AG, who is also the public prosecutor, could file for revision in the High Court on the findings by coroner Rofiah Mohamad in September 2019.
Visvanathan, who is also a lawyer, said the AG could also return to the same coroner and seek to reopen the inquest based on subsequent police investigations.
“In both alternatives, the AG is not tied to any limitation period. A coroner’s finding is never closed for investigation.
“It is not a criminal trial where aggrieved parties must appeal within a certain period to set aside a judgment,” he told FMT.
Visvanathan said the other option was to charge those who had gathered there for offences under the Penal Code, like causing riots.
He was responding to Umno Youth which had questioned the government’s silence over the police investigations into the cause of Adib’s death in late 2018.
Its head, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said appropriate action should be taken so that Adib’s family was not left in the dark.
Lawyer SN Nair said former AG Tommy Thomas should have gone to the High Court for a revision soon after Rofiah’s finding to bring an end to the saga.
“Instead, he opted for a safe way out by taking the unusual step of sending the matter back to the police.
“This is a case of playing political football,” said Nair, who has represented families of victims who died under bizarre circumstances in the past.
Thomas, in his memoirs ‘My Story: Justice in the Wilderness’, said he found Rofiah’s finding “mind-boggling” when the police, with their experience, expertise, manpower and resources, could not reach that conclusion.
He said after investigations by numerous police units and the AG’s office, no crime was found to have been committed. He said Adib had been injured when he was struck by a reversing fire engine while trying to re-enter a different vehicle, and thus no blame was assigned.
Thomas said he was asked by his subordinates to go to the High Court but he opted for police to resume their investigations.
In December, home minister Hamzah Zainudin had said that the investigation was in the final stages and the report would be submitted to the AG’s Chambers.
In July, Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador had reiterated that no reliable eye-witness had been found to the incident that led to the fireman’s death.
After a 41-day inquest, Rofiah came out with the verdict that “more than two unidentified persons” had killed Adib, who died after succumbing to injuries he sustained when he was despatched to the scene of a riot outside the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya.
She said it was now up to the police and the AG to bring charges. Adib died at the National Heart Institute on Dec 17, 2018.