The inquest decision on the death of Roopan Karnagaran, who died in custody at Kajang Prison three years ago, was finally delivered after a delay of over a year, with the decision postponed seven times within that period.
While Coroner Rasyihah Ghazali held that there was no negligence by Kajang Hospital and Kajang Prison behind Roopan’s ‘natural’ death, issues that critically reflected long-standing contributory factors to custodial deaths due to health issues were also highlighted, namely poor prison conditions and inadequate health infrastructure in the prison health clinic.
With due respect to the coroners’ court, Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) believes the absence of negligence by Kajang Hospital does not detract from the possibility that Roopan’s life might have been saved had the D-dimer test results indicating thrombosis been made available and acted upon.
In Kajang Hospital, the D-dimer test was not a routine one administered to patients at the time; yet it was ordered for Roopan, suggesting grounds for the provisional diagnosis of thrombosis.
The two doctors who respectively prepared the discharge report and discharged Roopan also testified that had they seen the D-dimer results, they would have taken relevant measures to ascertain whether the provisional diagnosis still stood.
Knowing who ordered that D-dimer test for Roopan would thus provide the conclusive answer to whether and to what extent there had been oversight on Kajang Hospital in detecting and responding to Roopan’s thrombosis condition.
Unfortunately, the alleged lack of witnesses and hospital documentation have hampered this critical lead from being explored.
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Whilst the court was unable to identify the cause of Roopan’s thrombosis, the fact remains that poorly ventilated and unsanitary detention facilities can increase the vulnerability of detainees to diseases.
On-duty healthcare professionals who are unavailable at the material time and inadequate medical equipment in prison clinics are persisting issues that contribute to delays in identifying and responding to critical health conditions among detainees – notably highlighted by the parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Rights, Election and Institutional Reform in their 2023 report on prison conditions in Malaysia.
State commitment to upholding detainees’ right to health, as enshrined in the Lockup Rules 1953 and the Nelson Mandela Rules, should be concretised.
On this note, Suaram calls on the government to prioritise allocations in the upcoming Budget to the Prisons Department and the Ministry of Health to address these long-standing infrastructure shortcomings. – Suaram
Sevan Doraisamy is executive director of Suaram.
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
