Singapore has asked the parents of a US man found hanged last year in the city-state to provide evidence for their claim that he was murdered, rather than committing suicide as medical experts said.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, the state counsel at a coroner’s inquiry into the death of US high-tech researcher Shane Todd said the government was open to hearing all evidence in the case.
“The reputation of Singapore’s justice system (is) at stake,” it said.
The statement was issued after Todd’s parents, who are attending the inquest, insisted Wednesday that their son was murdered and accused the local police of failing to preserve evidence.
They allege their 31-year-old son was killed because of his work for a Singapore institute with purported links to a Chinese telecom firm accused of involvement in espionage.
The inquest, which entered its fourth day Thursday, is due to last until May 28.
In the statement, the state counsel said the Singapore government had offered to fly in Edward H. Adelstein, a US pathologist who had concluded that Todd was killed by “garroting” and that there was evidence he had put up a fight.
The statement said Adelstein was unable to attend the inquest due to “personal reasons” but would give evidence via video link on Monday.
A Singapore government pathologist in an autopsy report said the cause of Todd’s death was “asphyxia due to hanging”. Two independent doctors who reviewed the report said the findings were consistent with suicide.
The government was also prepared to fly in a computer forensic analyst requested by the family to give evidence, the statement said.
“In relation to the possibility of homicide, so far, while counsel for (Todd’s parents) has raised hypothetical possibilities as to what might have happened, other than providing us reports, which we have submitted to the court, they have not provided any other evidence,” the statement added.
Wednesday’s session at the corner’s court was abruptly halted for the day after the late scientist’s mother Mary Todd, 57, broke down at the end of two hours of testimony by a Singapore forensic scientist who conducted extensive simulations of the hanging.
She questioned why the inquiry was “only looking at suicide”.
Singapore police officers who inspected the apartment where the researcher was found hanged on June 24, 2012 told the inquiry on Tuesday they saw no signs of a struggle.
Todd’s former employer, Singapore’s state-linked Institute of Microelectronics, and Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies, have denied the family’s claims that they worked together on a project involving Todd.
At the time of his death Todd had just finished a stint with the institute, where he was part of a team working on gallium nitride, a tough semiconductor material that can be used in radar and satellite communications.
A US congressional committee last year labelled Huawei and ZTE, another Chinese telecom firm, as potential security threats that should be excluded from US government contracts and barred from acquiring US firms.
The coroner’s inquest is tasked with determining the cause of Todd’s death. A verdict is expected by late June.
Singapore asks US parents for evidence of son's 'murder'
