PUTRAJAYA, June 13 — The Cabinet expects to receive the reports on the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, the loss of Pulau Batu Puteh and the controversial book by former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas only in August.

De facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the three special task forces were initially given six months to scrutinise the cases and present their findings, which was later extended another month, to make it easier for the Cabinet to look them over and make decisions.

"The three committees had presented their initial findings after three months but the Cabinet then told them to fine-tune it. Not only that, some reports came back 100 per cent in English, we wanted them in Bahasa.

"This was difficult as the law is very precise so we enlisted the help of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka to help transcribe the reports and that will take more time. As this matter is outside the scope of the committee we have to wait for it,” he told reporters here today, explaining the hold-up.

"Apart from that some of the information we need from individuals, not the government, has been hard to obtain. For example one of the persons we need to interview is in Pakistan,” he added, without elaborating.

Wan Junaidi said the task forces held 10 meetings between December 23, 2021 and April 12.

He said the meetings involved discussions and consultations with relevant individuals and government agencies such as the Attorney General’s Chambers, the police, the Judicial Services Commission, the Office of the Chief Registrar Federal Court of Malaysia, the Finance Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry.

Last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob ordered the formation of three special task forces to investigate deeper into the three current high-profile cases.

One was to review laws relating to the Pulau Batu Puteh case and shed light on who was responsible for Malaysia’s loss of ownership to Singapore. The island is located some 7.7 nautical miles south of Johor.

The other was to scrutinise Thomas’ book My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, which narrates his experience as the attorney general during the Pakatan Harapan administration after Election 2018 and contains eyebrow-raising allegations about the appointment of judges, excessive intervention by the executive arm of government in the judicial system, and selective prosecution.

The third task force was to delve deeper into the 2018 death of Adib who died of multiple serious wounds sustained during a riot at the Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

The coroner’s court ruled that the fireman’s death was a criminal act perpetrated by two or three unidentified assailants, but no one has been prosecuted so far.