A 33-year-old businessman who taped his conversation with a pathologist - who was supposed to have conducted a second-post mortem on his brother - was arrested after the doctor lodged a police report.

At 8.30 am, Ho Kooi Sang went to Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Kuala Lumpur to await the results of the second post-mortem for his brother Kwai See, 28, who died at the Sungai Buloh prison on Monday after a week in police custody.

However, he was later told by Prof Dr K Nadesan that the post-mortem had been cancelled.

"I talked with the doctor for over 45 minutes but he refused to do it. He also spoke in English and I did not understand very well so I taped our conversation through a tape recorder I kept in my pocket," he said when contacted later.

Ho said as he was about to leave Nadesan's room, when the pathologist noticed the tape recorder and rushed over to grab hold of the device.

"He wanted to take my recorder so I ran out. The doctor lodged a report with the police beat at the hospital. The police then ran after me, caught me and handcuffed me," he said, adding that his tape recorder was also confiscated.

He was released about four hours later following intervention by his lawyer, P Uthayakumar.

'Not right

'

Ho and his friend who accompanied him this morning lodged two police reports against Nadesan and the police officer who handcuffed him.

"I did not do anything wrong. I only taped the conversation for my own use as I did not understand English very well.

"We did not argue, we did not fight. And it was not right for the police to handcuff me," he said, adding that the incident had left his arms bruised.

He said the hospital had also earlier agreed to accept the booking for the second post-mortem to be done.

"I made the booking yesterday and paid the deposit. It was all ok yesterday. Then they changed their minds without giving us a proper reason," he added.

On the second post-mortem, Ho said he would apply for a court order, if necessary, to find out the causes for his brother's death.

Kwai See, a coconut trader from Kota Damansara, was last seen by family members nine days before his reported death. He was arrested by the police over a drug related offence and sent to the Sungai Buloh prison.

The family only found out his fate after being tipped off by an anonymous caller. They suspected foul play after seeing the body covered with bruises (see photos).

Kwai See was said to have died as a result of a "perforated ulcer", according to the first post-mortem findings carried out Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

New precedent

According to documents made available to the press (see left), it was noted that Nadesan had agreed in a reply letter to Ho's lawyer that the post-mortem would be scheduled for this morning.

However, in another letter this morning, UMMC's lawyers, P S Ranjan & Co, said the post-mortem examination would only be done upon proof of an official request.

"In view of the Criminal Procedure Code, our instruction are that the post-mortem examination would be undertaken upon receipt of information from the appropriate police officer or an order from a magistrate.

"So far, our clients have not seen anything authorising the examination," the letter said.

Both Nadesan and PS Ranjan & Co legal representatives were unavailable for comments.

Contacted later, Police Watch and Human Rights Committee R N Rajah said the request for a police or court order was unusual.

"We ordered second post-mortems in three other cases and they had never asked us for any such documents," he said.

"Now they want to set a precedent. This is an abuse of their powers. If there was such a rule, why did they accept our payment in the first place and why did they carry out the other post-mortems in earlier cases?" he questioned.

Rajah, who was contacted by Ho after the latter's troubles at the hospital, said he was later informed by UMMC director Prof Dr Mohd Amin Jalaluddin that all further communication has to be done via the hospital's legal representative.

This incident involving Kwai See's is the latest of a series of custodial deaths highlighted by the police watch committee since June last year.

Late last year, Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung revealed that 34 people had died while in police detention between Jan 2000 and Sept 2002.

Six persons died in 2000, 10 in 2001 and 18 during the first nine months of last year.