October 17, 2007	Wednesday	Shawwal 4, 1428

KINGSTON (Jamaica), Oct 16: The coroner’s inquest into Bob Woolmer’s death was set to start in Jamaica on Tuesday, five months after the Pakistan coach died in the hours following his team’s World Cup exit.

The inquest aims to determine whether anyone is responsible for Woolmer’s death, which was initially the subject of a murder investigation.

The case sparked a media frenzy with police suggesting Woolmer was strangled in his Kingston hotel room on March 18. Detectives from Scotland Yard and Pakistan were brought in and Jamaican police said nearly 400 people had been interviewed.

However, after consulting independent pathologists and viewing the toxicology report, Jamaican police in June admitted Woolmer died of natural causes. The inquest is intended to clarify the situation once and for all and the coroner will issue the official cause of death following the inquest.

“There was a lot of speculation, and as a result of that speculation we are having the inquest,” Sergeant Dwayne Jex of the Jamaica Constabulary Force told AP.

Jex estimated the process would take more than two months and at least 50 people were expected to testify.—Agencies