GEORGE TOWN – The inquest into the death of Australian grandmother Annapuranee Jenkins is set to go on as per its originally scheduled date after a parliamentarian from South Australia last week registered his displeasure over a purported delay in the proceedings.
Counsel S. Raveentharan, who represents the Jenkins family, said that he was informed that the proceedings will commence as scheduled on Monday (July 18).
He said that the inquest should continue before the same presiding Justice Norsalha Hamzah despite an earlier directive that the judge would be changed due to a recent elevation of judges in the Malaysian judiciary.
Earlier, Frank Pangallo, the SA-Best member of the South Australian Legislative Council, came forward to help Jenkins’ family in their fight to find justice to determine the circumstances in which she went missing in Penang and the investigations by the local authorities.
Annapuranee, who was born in Parit Buntar, had lived and raised a family in Adelaide for many years after marrying Francis Jenkins, a Royal Australian Air Force official who had met her while serving at the air force base in Butterworth.
The 67-year-old was reportedly last seen around Jalan Scotland, among the busiest roads in Penang, on the day she disappeared on December 13, 2017.
Her skeletal remains were found at a construction site in Batu Gantong here in June 2020, about 900m from where she was last seen alighting from an Uber ride.
Pangallo issued a statement, calling for the Australian government through its foreign minister Penny Wong to register a protest over how the case is handled here.
“The Australian government must formally intervene in the suspected murder of Adelaide grandmother Jenkins in Malaysia after local authorities again postponed a coronial inquiry into her mysterious disappearance more than four years ago,” he said.
Pangallo urged Wong to formally advise the Malaysian government that the Australian government expects it to respect due process in Jenkins’ death.
This follows Malaysian authorities advising Jenkins’ son Greg that the planned recommencement of a coronial inquiry into her death – which was supposed to resume on Monday – had been purportedly delayed.
If this happens, it would be the third time authorities have stalled the inquiry since it was due to begin earlier this year – and only days after Wong had commented publicly for the first time about her mysterious death, said Pangallo in a statement.
This is not the first time Pangallo has brought up the Jenkins case.
When the inquest began in March, he had said that the South Australian Parliament would be monitoring the proceedings.
Last year, he had moved a motion in South Australia’s Legislative Council late last year that called on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to request the Royal Malaysian Police conduct a thorough investigation.
Annapuranee disappeared when she was out visiting her mother here at the Little Sisters of the Poor, a home for the infirm and aged.
She was travelling in a car under ride-sharing service Uber to the home in Batu Lanchang, when suddenly she reportedly asked to stop before exiting the vehicle at Scotland Road.
She was never seen since, but her remains were later recovered about 900m from Scotland Road at a construction site beside the Penang Turf Club here.
Her death remains one of the most baffling cases in recent memory in Penang.
Her family has complained that the Malaysian authorities had been “heartless” and incompetent in the handling of the case.
Annapuranee’s son Greg has expressed disappointment over the inquest’s apparent lack of transparency and accusations made out of the blue by police that his mother was involved in drugs. – The Vibes, July 16, 2022
