Inquiry team visits scene of Beng Hock’s death

SHAH ALAM: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating Teoh Beng Hock’s death today visited the location where the tragedy occurred two years ago.

Panel chairman James Foong was at Plaza Masalam here by 9.50am. He was accompanied by other panellists, conducting officers, police investigators, forensics experts and lawyers.

The group was also trailed by a large press corps.

The group, guided by the investigating officer of the case, ASP Ahmad Nazei Zainal, first surveyed the fifith floor of the building, where Teoh’s body was found.

They then proceeded to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office at the 14th floor, where Teoh was interrogated overnight before his death.

The team also spent some time at the window area where Teoh was believed to have fallen off. They also looked through some photographs and asked Ahmad Nazei and Bukit Aman crime scene investigator officer DSP Sharul Othman Mansor a few questions for clarification.

The panel members also visited a meeting room where Teoh’s interrogation took place and the area, formerly a pantry, where Teoh was last seen alive.

The group left by 11.15am.

The team will return to the Jalan Duta Court Complex to continue its hearing in the afternoon.

On Jan 5, the Coroner’s Court had returned an open verdict on Teoh’s death, ruling out both suicide and homicide, citing insufficient evidence to conclusively prove either.

However, Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail had filed a revision on the decision, and Teoh’s family believed that he was pushing for a suicide finding. The hearing for this case starts today.

Subsequently, Foong was appointed to head the panel to look into the causes and circumstances surrounding Teoh’s death and the interrogation procedures of the MACC.

The commission’s terms of reference are:

• To look into whether or not, there was any impropriety in the conduct of the examination of Teoh in the course of an investigation into a Shah Alam report by the MACC, in relation to its standing orders and practices, and to recommend any appropriate action, where necessary; and

• To enquire into Teoh’s death and the circumstances surrounding and contributing to his death.

The other four members of the commission are former federal judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, ex-Court of Appeal judge T Selventhiranathan, Penang Hospital’s senior consultant in forensic pathology Bhupinder Singh and Cyberjaya University College of Medical Science’s dean and consultant forensic psychiatrist Prof Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom.

The inquiry is scheduled to end on April 25 and the final report handed over to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin. The King will then decide on the next course of action.

Teoh, the DAP political aide to Selangor executive councillor and Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam.

Teoh, then 30, died hours after he was interrogated overnight by the MACC at the Selangor MACC office located on the 14th floor of the same building.

He was a witness in the alleged misuse of Selangor government allocations.

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