The Malaysian Insight

THE Health Ministry today defended an autopsy report ruling that Muhamad Thaqif Amin Mohd Gadaffi died of leptospirosis, saying its findings have saved an innocent man – the assistant warden accused of causing injuries which led to the pupil’s death – from being wrongly charged with murder.

“Hitting alone wouldn’t have led to that (death). There was another reason and we have identified that the victim did not die from being hit, but it was from another reason, which is leptospirosis,” said Deputy Health Minister Dr Hilmi Yahaya.

“If we didn’t detect (the disease), the ustaz would have been charged with murder. So, we have to be fair. We have to find the reason,” he told reporters in Sungai Buloh today, referring to the assistant warden as a religious teacher.

The 29-year-old was detained after Thaqif’s death in April to assist in investigations over allegations that he had repeatedly hit the 11-year-old boy with a rubber pipe, causing injuries which ultimately led to his death.

The suspect, who had a previous conviction for robbery, was later released on a RM20,000 court bond, without being charged.

The case received wide media coverage as the first post-mortem revealed signs of abuse.

The results of the second post-mortem were made public on Monday, revealing that he died of a bacterial infection.

Thaqif’s family have disputed the findings of this second post-mortem, with his mother Felda Wani Ahmad questioning why police and the hospital had not released the results of the post-mortem to the family but had instead revealed its findings to the media. – July 12, 2017.