PUTRAJAYA: The family of factory worker Kamarulnizam Ismail will receive a total of RM290,800 in damages over his death in the Tapah prison, seven years ago.
The decision was made by the Court of Appeal today in regards to the appeal by the deceased's mother Rahaya Salleh.
She had claimed for compensation over the death of her son who was found dead in police custody.
A three-member bench led by judge Datuk Yaacob Md Sam in the unanimous decision awarded RM250,000 in general damages for negligence and RM40,800 in damages for dependency claim to the family.
The court also ordered for the respondents, namely the police, prison officials and the government to pay the amount inclusive of interests of 4 per cent for general damages and 5 per cent for the dependency claim as well as costs of RM5,000.
Judge Datuk Ahmad Nasfy Yasin who delivered the decision said the deceased had been subjected to a long series of detention and interrogation process which had certainly led to the latter's health becoming deteriorated.
"While in the prison cell, he (the deceased) complained of stomach pain and suffered from diarrhoea and was prescribed medicine. He was found unconscious on March 8, 2014.
"His illness of lung infection could not have just developed overnight, he was deprived of medical attention.
"For those reasons, we are of the view that the sum of RM250,000 is appropriate to be awarded as general damages for negligence," the judge said.
The other judge on the bench was Datuk M.Gunalan.
In today's proceedings which was conducted via Zoom, Rahaya was represented by lawyers M.Visvanathan, R.Karnan and V.Sanjay Nathan while the respondents were represented by senior federal counsel Azizan Md Arshad,Andi Razali Jaya A. Dadi and Mohd Ashraf Abd Hamid.
On June 24, the court allowed the government's appeal to set aside the Ipoh High Court's decision to award the family RM100,000 damages for unlawful detention and RM50,000 for misfeasance in public office.
However, the court on that day increased the legal costs awarded by the lower court from RM12,000 to RM30,000 and allowed RM10,000 in special damages to be awarded to the family.
In Aug 2019, the Ipoh High Court allowed the lawsuit filed by the deceased's family against the government and 12 others over Kamarulnizam's death.
The court held that the defendants were liable for negligence and awarded the family RM100,000 for his unlawful detention, RM50,000 for misfeasance of public office, RM2, 000 for funeral expenses and RM12, 000 in legal costs.
Although the court had found that the negligence by the authorities had resulted into the death, it denied the family's dependency claim.
In March 2014, Kamarulnizam was arrested and later charged at the magistrate's court in Penang for possessing stolen goods.
He pleaded guilty to the charge under Section 29 of the Minor Offences Act 1955 and was given a fine of RM800 in default 14 days' jail.
The 39-year old, who worked in a sugar refinery in Penang, chose to serve the jail term as he needed the money to repair his car, despite his 80-year old father showing up in the court to settle the fine.
Rahaya, 71, filed the suit against the respondents on March 3, 2017, and sought for dependency claim, misfeasance of public office, aggravated, exemplary and special damages over her son's death in the Tapah prison in Perak between March 7 and March 8, 2014.
It was reported that the post-mortem results showed that Kamarulnizam had died of a lung infection.
