The family of a former tahfiz student has filed a civil suit against the government claiming negligence and breach of statutory duty in relation to investigations into his death 12 years ago.
In a statement today, the lawyers representing the family of Wan Ahmad Faris Wan Abdul Rahman, who was in Form 4 of the tahfiz school, said a writ of summons and statement of claim had been filed at the Kota Bharu High Court.
The case is being handled by a team of 10 lawyers and a former deputy public prosecutor, on a pro bono basis.
Based on the statement of claim, the suit named the home minister, the police force, the inspector-general of police, and the two investigating officers of the case – Mat Yaman Hassan and Awis Kirani Abdullah – as defendants.
It also named as defendants Raja Rozmi Raja Rashid, a police officer stationed in Bukit Aman who was involved in the investigations; Abdul Rozak Muhammad, who was the Kota Bharu police criminal investigations chief at the material time; Nor Yhazid Idris, in his capacity of state criminal investigation department chief; and Fazley Ab Rahman, the then director-general of prosecution at Bukit Aman’s criminal investigation department.
The plaintiffs, Wan Abdul Rahman Wan Yaacob and Ruhani Hussain, who are Wan Faris’s parents, are claiming general, aggravated and exemplary damages from the defendants.
They claim that the police team failed to discharge their duty of care in taking necessary investigative steps into the teen’s death, including in accordance with Article 5 of the Federal Constitution on right to life, the Police Act, and the Criminal Procedure Code.
The plaintiffs also claim that the police failed to provide the family with updates on their probe, including the post-mortem report.
They allege that the police failed to look into several important aspects of investigation, including the wounds on Wan Faris’s body, blood stains found on his clothing, phone records, as well as claims of bullying at the religious school.
As a result, the plaintiffs are said to have suffered mental distress, pain, suffering and anguish.
“The plaintiffs have not been able to get any certainty as to what actually happened,” according to the statement of claim.
Last month, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the fresh investigation paper into Wan Faris’s death had been referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, confirming that police reopened their investigation into the case.
Saifuddin said police recorded the statements of 14 witnesses, including additional statements from the chemist and pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the deceased.
Wan Faris’s body was found by a dormitory supervisor on Dec 14, 2013, after he detected an odour coming from a toilet at the dormitory.
An autopsy classified it as sudden death and ruled out any criminal involvement. However, a coroner’s court ruled in June 2016 that he was murdered by an unidentified person.
