US pathologist to testify via video-link at inquiry into American researcher's death

A United States-based pathologist who suggested in a post-mortem report that American researcher Shane Todd had been murdered, will testify on Monday via video-link.

Dr Edward H. Adelstein had said in his report that evidence of "blunt trauma" bruising in Dr Todd's hands were caused by a fight, although the Health Science Authority (HSA) pathologist who oversaw his autopsy said the dark-blue marks was simply blood pooling in the extremities following death.

Monday will be the sixth day of a coroner's inquiry into the researcher's death.

Computer analyst Ashraff Massoud, who had also been engaged by the Todd family, will also testify about data he recovered from a computer hard disk which Dr Todd's parents passed to him.

The family had claimed that police missed a hard disk in Dr Todd's apartment, which they subsequently took back to the US with them. But police said they returned the hard disk to the Todds after finding there was nothing of relevance to the investigations on the drive, and this was backed up by a Federal Bureau of Investigation report tendered to court last week.

The inquiry resumes today on Monday after four witnesses from the Institute of Microelectronics (IME), including Dr Todd's supervisor, testified that the researcher regretted transferring to the Gallium Nitride (GaN) research group. He had no expertise in this field. They also testified that the research group did no work for Chinese tech giant Huawei.

They also told the court that IME's work was strictly commercial and non-military nor classified, and that IME's technology operates at a speed and power level that would not have met military specifications.

Dr Todd, then 31, had resigned from IME and was due to return to the US when he was found dead in his apartment last June.

His parents had alleged in a Financial Times article in February and maintain that Dr Todd had been murdered for his GaN work at IME, which had links with Huawei, a company which the US government has suspected of espionage.

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