(Trinidad Express) A private forensic report on deceased diver Kazim Ali junior found that he was alive in the pipeline after being declared dead by Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited, possibly for up to 39 hours.
This according to attorney Gerald Ramdeen who shared the findings of the report at the Hilton hotel, St Ann’s yesterday.
On February 25, 2022 five LMCS Company Ltd divers- Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagessar, Kazim Ali Jr and Yusuf Henry went to no. 36 sealine riser on the berth 6 offshore platform at Point-A-Pierre to conduct maintenance works on a pipeline.
An incident occurred where they were all sucked into the pipeline and went missing. Boodram was the lone survivor.
Ramdeen said Ali’s family retained pathologist Hubert Daisley to perform a private forensic autopsy on Ali’s body which found that he died by asphyxia and drowning.
The report, he said, stated that Ali suffered injuries to his leg.
Ramdeen emphasised that Ali was alive in the pipeline when Paria made the determination that the divers were dead and when they prevented any rescue efforts.
“It seems an approximate time of Mr Ali’s death would be some 48 hours, plus or minus, 12 hours before his body was discovered,” he read from the report.
Ramdeen noted that Ali’s body was discovered at 6 p.m. on Monday February 28, 2022.
All five divers had gone into the hyperbaric chamber on Friday February 25, 2022.
Ramdeen said the report found that that earliest time of death would be 6 a.m. Saturday (15 hours and 15 minutes after being sucked into the pipeline).
He said the latest time of death was 6 a.m. on Sunday morning (39 hours and 15 minutes after being sucked in).
Ramdeen said Ali and the other divers were inside the 30 inch pipeline, which had air pockets, fighting for their lives.
Paria, he said, left them inside the pipeline to die.
