Teoh's note: Not so easy to verify Chinese writing

PETALING JAYA (Star) - Handwritten Chinese characters are generally difficult to compare and verify who it belongs to, forensic document analyst Siow Kwen Sia said.

“This is due to the Chinese education system where all students are trained to write in a similar style,” said Siow in light of the emergence of a purported suicide note in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had said on Tuesday that he was initially not convinced and had to thoroughly check and determine its authenticity before deciding to tender it as evidence.

The note was first found inside Teoh’s sling bag more than two months after his death in July last year.

However, Siow acknowledged there were exceptional cases whereby a person’s unique style of writing or habit may be detected in Chinese handwriting.

“If the person writes in Chinese often, his or her style of writing may become unique to the person and could be matched for identification purposes,” said Siow, who served as a forensic chemist in the Criminalistic Division and as an analytical chemist in the Industrial Division at the Chemistry Department for 13 years.

For 23 years, he worked as an independent forensic document analyst and has also testified as an expert witness in numerous civil court cases and domestic inquiries on behalf of banks, insurance companies, loss adjusters, legal firms and individuals.

“Sometimes, the words they use may be special if the document is addressed to a loved one,” said Siow.

He stressed the need for many handwriting samples to be supplied by family members to help in the verification process.

He added that the more handwriting samples in Chinese used to compare with the disputed writing in the document, the more reliable the end result would be.

“In every stroke of a pen, at least two handwriting traits can be traced,” said Siow.

Siow claimed that some experts may use unorthodox methods to verify handwritten Chinese characters that are not recognised by Hong Kong-based experts – who are specialists in the field.