The following is the official sequence of events immediately after Shoura Council member Mansour Abdulghaffar collapsed after a heart attack while out for exercise Sunday night. Abdulghaffar was left lying dead on a street for three hours and the Emir of Riyadh has ordered an investigation into the incident. A statement from the Riyadh Health Department, carried by Dr. Mashhour Al-Waqdani, assistant medical director of the Forensic Department, said the Sulaimaniya Police Department called the technician on duty at 11.30 P.M. Sunday but the official report of the incident, received through fax was at 11.37 P.M., stated that there was a dead body lying on the street, with suspicion of murder. Acting on information provided by the faxed report, the forensic team, fully equipped, was deployed to the scene and arrived at 12.11 A.M., according to the death scene report, the statement said. The forensic specialist attended the case within 34 minutes of receiving the police report, the statement added. After examining the body, the forensic specialist gave permission to transfer the body to the morgue at the Forensic Department, although it would have been the job of Riyadh Mayoralty to do that, it added. The body arrived at the morgue at 12.40 A.M, the statement said. Out of respect for the dead and his rights, the Forensic Department acted promptly upon receiving the police report, it said. The forensic team, composed of 12 consultants, 8 specialists, 3 resident physicians covering the whole city of Riyadh, works around the clock in two shifts to attend to any emergency case suspected of criminal death at a record speed if reported, the statement from the Riyadh Health Department added. Each shift is composed of one physician and three technicians, it said. Hitting back at allegations of being overwhelmed by bureaucracy and carelessness, the statement said that the forensic team only attends the case if it is reported by the police and does not provide medical help, the statement said. – Okaz __
