Eight days after his untimely death, the family of coconut trader Ho Kwai See ( right ) are still fighting for a second post-mortem to be carried out to determine his cause of death.

Contacted today, Ho Kooi Sang - brother of Kwai See - said the family would not remove his body for burial from the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) until the hospital performs a post-mortem.

"I really don't know why they are refusing to do the post-mortem. We (family members) are already having such a difficult time. It is not the first time the hospital has come across a case like this and there were no problems before. Why are they delaying our request?" asked Kooi Sang ( left ).

Kwai See, 28, had died on July 28 while in police custody. He had been arrested nine days earlier over a drug-related offence and then sent to the Sungai Buloh prison.

His family suspected foul play after seeing his body covered with bruises. According to the post-mortem findings carried out at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Kwai See apparently died of a "perforated ulcer".

Dissatisfied, Kooi Sang applied for a second post-mortem to be conducted last Friday at UMMC. However, the forensics department refused to carry out the post-mortem despite allegedly agreeing to do so earlier.

Repeated attempts to contact UMMC representatives today were unsuccessful.

Previous press reports cited a letter to the family from the hospital's lawyer saying that no authorisation had been received from a police officer or magistrate to conduct the post-mortem, as required under the Criminal Procedure Code.

Multiple appeals

Kwai See's family today submitted an appeal letter to Universiti Malaya (UM) Vice-Chancellor Prof Hashim Yaacob urging him to reconsider their request.

RN Rajah, the chairperson of the Police Watch and Human Rights Committee, said the letter was handed to the vice-chancellor's office, as he was not available for a meeting with the family.

Rajah, who was present, said the family members were informed that the VC would be busy with the UM convocations for the next few days.

"His assistant accepted the letter and said that she would inform the VC," he said when contacted.

Yesterday, the family also delivered an appeal letter to Health Minister Chua Jui Ming, asking for the minister's intervention.

On the next move, Kooi Sang said he is planning to file a civil suit against UMMC unless the hospital complies with its earlier agreement.

"We will go to the High Court tomorrow...we are not giving up on this matter," he said.

Sudden death

The family has lodged several police reports calling for investigations into the sudden death of Kwai See and into the refusal of the UMMC forensics department to carry out the post-mortem.

The first report was lodged at the Brickfields police station on Aug 8 over Kwai See's death while in police custody.

The next three reports were lodged at the UMMC police beat base after an incident at the hospital when Kooi Sang was temporarily held under arrest.

An altercation took place after UMMC forensic pathologist Prof K Nadesan discovered that Kooi Sang had taped their conversation during which the former had refused to perform the second post-mortem.

Kooi Sang, who said he taped the conversation as he was not fluent in English (the language used by the pathologist), was later released following his lawyer's intervention.

Last Sunday, he lodged another police report at Brickfields urging police to issue a permit for a second post-mortem to be carried out on Kwai See.