Inquest investigating Numan Haider’s death continues
MOSQUES rejected family’s requests because Numan Haider, who was shot and killed after attacking police, was too high profile.
Three Melbourne mosques rejected the body of teen Numan Haider after he was shot by police because they feared media and police attention, a court has heard.
Khalifur-Rahman Hamid, the former imam at the Hallam mosque that Haider and his family frequented, has told the inquest into the 18-year-old’s death that three mosques refused to wash his body.
Haider was fatally shot in the head outside the Endeavour Hills police station in September 2014 after he stabbed a Victorian Police officer and an Australian Federal Police officer.
The inquest has previously heard he had stabbed one officer in the eye and was attempting to stab him in the stomach when he was shot in the head.
Mr Hamid told Victorian Coroner John Olle that after the shooting Haider’s family approached him about the body being washed.
The first mosque he approached said they did not want to accept Haider because his was a high-profile body.
The second mosque said the same, Mr Hamid told the inquest on Thursday.
The third mosque suggested the body be washed at night and then taken back to the family home.
“They feared the media, they feared the police,” Mr Hamid said.
It is one of the principals and core rights of Islam that a dead person be respected, Mr Hamid told the court.
Earlier a friend of Haider thought to have been stabbed by the teen said he was actually injured by a loose nail — and Haider was just joking when he said he’d stabbed him.
Habib Paygham told the inquest Haider was “a funny guy” who “always loved to make people laugh”, which explained why Haider told another friend he’d stabbed Paygham a fortnight before he was killed.
The inquest continues.