‘I regret sending my son to the navy,’ says father of cadet Soosaimanicckam after homicide court ruling, calls for murder probe

PETALING JAYA, Aug 1 — The father of J. Soosaimanicckam wants Bukit Aman to start murder investigations into his son’s death after the High Court declared it to be homicide.

Joseph Sinnappan filed a complaint with the police at the district headquarters here today, accompanied by lawyers N. Surendran and Zaid Malek.

“I regret sending my son to the navy. They were careless and negligent and because of that, my son is dead,” he told reporters waiting outside.

Joseph said his son was fit and healthy when he enrolled into the academy, but had died during his training at the KD Sultan Idris, Lumut naval base in Perak on May 19, 2018.

“At that time, the father made the police report and asked for action. He said his son should not have died in that manner, but there was never any investigation carried out,” Surendran told reporters.

After five years of inquest proceedings, the Coroner’s Court delivered an open verdict.

Coroner Ainul Shahrin Mohamad ruled that the cause of death was pulmonary oedema (fluid in the lungs), but did not state what had prompted the condition, saying there were too many “conflicting” reports to reach a conclusive verdict.

On Monday, the High Court in Ipoh overturned the coroner’s verdict, delivering what Joseph’s lawyers described as due justice.

Soosaimanickam’s family had filed a civil suit immediately to challenge the coroner’s ruling.

“Now the Ipoh High Court on Monday pronounced a very serious verdict, that the death of his son was a homicide... this morning, Joseph lodged a police report.

“We want the investigation to be carried out by Bukit Aman because this is a very serious matter. There must be an independent investigation,” Surendran said.

Last Monday, High Court judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed said the death was a homicide caused directly by the refusal of Soosaimanicckam’s superiors in the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) to let him seek medical care.

“They’re very disappointed. The verdict came out on Monday, no response from the defence minister, no response from the defence ministry. No response from the navy or the navy chief or anyone. No response from the government, the Cabinet,” Surendran said.

“Do you mean to say that a High Court judge in this country can pronounce a serious homicide verdict over the death of a navy cadet trainee in training, and no one in authority has anything to say? Is this what we have come to?” he asked.

Surendran said the High Court judgement was a serious call to action on the part of policymakers and should put the spotlight on TLDM’s training system and protocols.

To date, no official statement has been issued by the government or TLDM.