Supporters of the family of a coconut trader who died while in police custody today held a short protest outside the University Malaya Medical Centre in Petaling Jaya over the hospital's refusal to carry out a second post-mortem on the deceased.

About 20 people gathered outside the UMMC mortuary for about 30 minutes carrying pictures of the 28-year-old Ho Kwai See who died at the Sungai Buloh prison on Aug 4 after a week in detention.

Among those who attended are lawyers P Uthayakumar, M Manoharan, VK Sharma, police watch and human rights committee chairperson RN Rajah and Keadilan supreme council member N Gobalakrishnan.

Case to be pursued

The lawyers had recently represented the family to obtain a court order to compel the UMMC to conduct the post-mortem on Kwai See to determine the cause of death.

The family was dissatisfied with the first post-mortem findings which ruled that Kwai See had died of a "perforated ulcer". They suspected foul play after seeing bruises on the body.

However, the application was rejected by the Kuala Lumpur High Court yesterday on grounds that the plaintiff - Kwai See's brother Ho Kooi Sang - had failed to satisfy the requirements under the Special Relief Act 1950 which gives powers to the court to order officials to carry out certain acts.

Speaking to reporters, Rajah said the gathering was to protest against the court decision and the refusal of the hospital authorities to allow the post-mortem.

"We are not happy with this and will continue to pursue this case," he said.

Initially agreeing to perform the post-mortem, UMMC forensic pathologist K Nadesan later declined following a dispute with the family's lawyers.

UMMC asked the family to present a magistrate's order or a police permit for the second post-mortem to be carried out. The family then applied to the High Court to overrule the hospital's decision.

Cremation at 2pm

Meanwhile, Manoharan said the family had agreed to postpone the cremation of Kwai See from this morning to 2 pm today to enable supporters to be present at the cremation ceremony.

"Some supporters are on the way to the crematorium and we will be there as well," he said.

Manoharan said he would be filing an appeal over the High Court decision tomorrow instead of today, in deference to the family's bereavement.

Yesterday, Kooi Sang's lawyers vowed to appeal the High Court decision as the judgement could affect future custodial death cases.

In three such cases earlier, UMMC had performed second post-mortems at the request of the family members without requiring any official permit.

However, the court decision yesterday could mean that all future requests for second post-mortems would only be performed if authorised by a magistrate or the police.