Govt, police get leave to appeal RM197,600 damages for death in custody

The government and the police have been granted leave to appeal against a lower court’s order to pay RM197,600 in damages for the death of a gravedigger in police custody five years ago.

The Court of Appeal’s three-judge panel comprising Justices Che Mohd Ruzima Ghazali, Azman Abdullah, and Mohamed Zaini Mazlan allowed the application.

Che Ruzima, in delivering the court’s decision, said there are issues regarding aggravated damages and liability under the relevant laws that have yet to be decided.

He said that these issues require further deliberation, and the Court of Appeal’s decision on them will serve the public interest.

Che Ruzima subsequently directed the government and the police to file their notices of appeal within two weeks.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers had applied to obtain leave as the damages awarded by a Penang High Court were less than RM250,000.

Police negligence

Under Section 68 of the Courts of Judicature Act, an appellant has no automatic right of appeal when a judgment sum is below RM250,000.

On May 20, this year, the High Court ruled that the death of 29-year-old Mohd Fadzrin Zaidi had resulted from police negligence in failing to prevent his suicide.

The court found the police and the government liable and ordered them to pay RM197,600 in damages and costs to Fadzrin’s family.

The damages included RM57,600 in dependency costs, RM30,000 in bereavement costs, RM50,000 in aggravated damages, special damages of RM10,000, and RM50,000 in legal costs.

High Court judge Anand Ponnudurai ruled that the police had breached the duty of care owed to Fadzrin, by failing to carry out regular patrols that might have prevented his death.

Fadzrin was detained during a drug raid in 2019 and was later found hanging in his cell at North Seberang Perai district police headquarters.

In 2022, his mother, Fadhelah Othman, filed a lawsuit against nine defendants, including the inspector-general of police, the Penang police chief, the North Seberang Perai district police headquarters police chief and personnel, and the government of Malaysia.

In today’s proceedings, senior federal counsels Nur Ezdiani Roleb and Syafiq Affendy Hassan appeared for the government and police, while lawyers Sanjay Nathan and Pushan Qin Nathan represented Fadhelah.

- Bernama

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