On Dinesh…part of a longer post
The New Paper reported today that there would be no coroner’s inquiry. The case has been handled by the criminal courts and the prison supervisor has been fined $10,000. Still it is puzzling that there was no coroner’s inquiry in the first place. The coroner is supposed to get to the when, why and how the death happened. The coroner cannot assign blame, but he could suggest that more investigations of a criminal nature could be undertaken. In this case, there was a committee of inquiry into the death convened by the Home Affairs ministry, then the court case, and the subsequent coroner inquiry yesterday that the Attorney-General’s Office said was “discontinued’’ since criminal proceedings are over.
Which would have been all right if the court case was clear about exactly how or even when the inmate died. Did he have any bruises on him? Was he or was he not handcuffed? Was he already dead before he was subdued and put into solitary confinement?
The COI has led to a list of recommendations to “better educate officers on the risk of positional asphyxia in inmates and review officers’ training methods”. Here’s another question: How did the officers (there were eight involved) go uneducated about this for 22 years since the restraint techniques were introduced in 1991? Should the Prisons Department therefore shoulder some responsibility in Dinesh’s death as well?
Again, could more information be given? What about a look at that COI report?
An ex-journalist who can't get enough of the news after being in the business for 26 years
