No need to dispute Malaysia’s forensic expertise — Subra Subramaniam

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Members of the Royal Malaysia Police special task forces (STAFOC) stand guard inside the morgue at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital where Kim Jong Nam’s body is held for autopsy. — Reuters photo

Members of the Royal Malaysia Police special task forces (STAFOC) stand guard inside the morgue at Kuala Lumpur General Hospital where Kim Jong Nam’s body is held for autopsy. — Reuters photo

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign countries should not dispute the expertise and capabilities of Malaysia’s forensic team to conduct the post mortem relating to the death of Kim Jong-nam, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam.

He said Malaysia has a highly qualified forensic team with vast experience in the field that had provided its expertise to solve various cases within and outside the country.

“We got an experienced team. Our team was in Netherlands with international forensic teams for the MH17 case, and also in Indonesia after the AirAsia 8501 plane tragedy to assist them…we know exactly what to do and what are the process.

“There is no question on the capacity of our team to identify the actual thing. Yesterday I was with them (forensic team), they explained to me, of course, we have to get the DNA profile (Kim Jong-nam),” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after officiating at the earth-breaking ceremony of the Gamma Knife Centre in the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (PPUKM), here yesterday.

“If the son comes (blood related son), then his DNA would help us in the identifying process, but in the absence of that, we will use other elements which we have, to confirm the identification,” he said.

Jong-nam, who is the elder half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died on Feb 13 while on the way to the Putrajaya hospital.  – Bernama