‘Did you murder him?’

A senior MACC officer is grilled over several issues by the RCI, but his answers prompt one commissioner to draw a comparison with a Star Trek character.

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) senior officer was grilled this morning by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating Teoh Beng Hock’s death.

At one point, Selangor MACC investigation unit head Hairul Ilham Hamzah was even asked if he had thrown Teoh out of the window.

RCI chairman James Foong asked him this when the MACC officer said that he was in a state of panic after learning about Teoh’s death.

His answers had also left commissioner T Selventhiranathan puzzled, with the latter likening it to Star Trek character, Spock’s famous line, “It does not compute”.

Hairul had testified that he was informed about Teoh’s death by his subordinate Mohd Anuar Ismail.

Both of them subsequently called the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya to brief their superior, deputy commissioner Hishamuddin Hashim.

Hairul also revealed that he had made a stop at Anuar’s house in Puchong before heading to Putrajaya.

Before Hairul could get down at the parking lot in Putrajaya, he was instructed to lodge a police report with the Shah Alam district police headquarters.

But before he could lodge a report, Hairul was again called by Hishamuddin to return to the Selangor MACC office at Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam to brief him, since the deputy commissioner had already went there.

‘Whose family is more important?’

Hairul was then asked by conducting officer Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud why he had stopped at Anuar’s house.

Hairul: I don’t know. But I think he wanted to inform his family (about Teoh’s death).

Selventhiranathan: What was more important? His family or Teoh’s family? The instruction from the boss was to go to Putrajaya, I feel that it is quite weird. Didn’t you ask him why? If he wanted to tell his wife, why couldn’t he call her over the phone?

Hairul: I don’t know. I didn’t think of asking him.

Selventhiranathan: Do you watch Star Trek, there is a character called Spock, he would say “It does not compute.” He is a vulcan.

Foong: Was it because he (Anuar) wanted to go home to say sorry?

Hairul: I don’t know.

Foong: But now you already have an order from Hishamuddin to quickly go to Putrajaya. Isn’t that important?

Hairul: At the time, I really panicked. I went blank. I did not know what to do…

Foong: Why panic? Did you do anything wrong?

Hairul: No, but I didn’t know what wrong I did.

Foong: Well, did you perhaps… throw him out of the window, or murder him?

Hairul: I would not do something like that.

Hairul also told the commission that he could not remember if he had talked with Anuar during the drive from Putrajaya to Shah Alam, prompting Foong to ask if he needed “psychiatric evaluation” or if his memory was “selective.”

Foong asked if Hairul had panicked because “you had asked your officers to use violence on Teoh?”, to which Hairul replied: “That’s not true.”

Hairul also told the commission that he had asked another MACC officer to come to the police station to escort him and Anuar as he “feared for his safety”.

Hairul explained to the commissioners that he was afraid because he was unsure how to answer to the public about the incident.

He said that it was the first time his witness had died and he felt that perhaps he would be in danger of being assaulted by someone.

Foong said that his thinking was “very illogical” and “unusual”.

Asked if he had regretted not releasing Teoh, Hairul said he had thought about it but could not have made a different decision then.

“If Teoh had told me that he was getting married the next day and he wanted to go home, I would have let him go or perhaps call him up another day,” he said.

‘Was he your boy to get confessions?’

Hairul was also quizzed by the commission regarding his subordinate Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus, who had been accused of violent interrogation techniques.

Foong, who informed Hairul that the RCI had received numerous complaints from the public regarding this, asked if Ashraf was “his boy to get confessions.”

“Ever since the RCI was formed, we’ve been receiving information from the public and if there is any basis, we will follow through. We have asked our investigator (Michael Leslie Squires) to check,” he said.

Foong asked Hairul whether he was aware that there had been several reports of abusive interrogation techniques against Ashraf.

Reading out from his Blackberry phone, Foong revealed details purportedly from police reports against MACC which allegedly showed a “link” between Hairul and Ashraf.

“June 24, 2009, a male was taken into custody by MACC. Hairul and Ashraf. IC has been kept, report assault over a period, injuries confirmed, using instruments, leaving significant bruises. Case pending.

“I got another one for you,” added Foong. “I’ll read it for you. July 2, 2009, a male arrested and kept IC, released on July 7, by Hairul and Ashraf and others, July 8 police report lodged. July 9 hospital reports multiple abrasions and bruises.”

The RCI chairman said that the reason he revealed these details was “to be fair” and let Hairul know that there were such allegations against him.

“It was always said that Ashraf is your boy to get confessions,” he added.

Hairul had earlier admitted that he knew of several police reports lodged against Ashraf, but believed that they only emerged after Teoh’s death, prompting Foong to read out the dates and details from his phone.

Foong also quizzed Hairul on the reason he had called Ashraf to assist another officer Arman Alies to interrogate Teoh on the night of July 15, 2009.

Foong: Who was the one who asked Ashraf to help?

Hairul: It was me.

Selventhiranathan: Why ask Ashraf to help when there were other officers you could ask?

Hairul: Many of them were involved in the operation in the morning. Usually in all our operations, I want all our men involved.

Foong: Do you work well with Ashraf? Or did you choose him because Ashraf could get a quick confession for you?

When pointed out that Ashraf had ignored a letter from the police seeking his cooperation, Hairul explained that the former had done so under his instruction.

Hairul said that he did this based on a legislation that allowed Ashraf to ignore a request from the police for several documents.

Foong: But you did not reply the letter at all?

Hairul: In my opinion, I did not need to reply to that letter.

Selventhiranathan: How could the police investigate usage of violence by a MACC officer if you don’t cooperate?

Hairul: Not just him (Ashraf) but a few officers have been investigated. Even I myself have been in an idenfication parade.

Foong then said he hoped that all these allegations against MACC were untrue because he did not want to discover that the anti-graft watchdog was “an institution above the law”.

‘Are your officers all angels?’

During questioning by Bar Council lawyer Cheow Wee, it was suggested to Hairul that he had chosen Arman and Ashraf because they were his “favourites” and they could produce the desired results, but Hairul denied this.

Quizzed further on the complaints against MACC officers, Hairul said he knew of close to 20 such complaints but had only become aware of them after Teoh’s death.

Foong then asked how could Hairul, as a senior officer, be unaware of his officers’ conduct.

“You didn’t know what they did? Do you know that one way to interrogate witness is to sit them down in the same room (where Teoh was interrogated). Put a box on a person’s head, use a pipe and newspaper and use that to hit him on the soles of his feet? You didn’t know?” asked Foong.

“No, I don’t know,” said Hairul.

“So all your officers are angels?” retorted Foong.

Meanwhile, Foong also ruled to grant an application by the Bar Council to seize all computers, handphones and investigation diaries of several MACC officers.

However, he said that he would only decide on Monday whether a similar order to seize handphones of state exco Ean Yong Hian Wah, Lee Wye Wing, Tan Boon Wah, M Manoharan and Gobind Singh Deo.

Meanwhile, Bar Council vice-president Christopher Leong informed the commission that forensic psychiatrist Dr Benjamin Chan, one of the psychiatrists tasked with ascertaining Teoh’s state of mind, would be withdrawing from the inquiry.

Leong said Chan had not stated any specific reason for his decision.

Teoh, the political aide of exco Ean of DAP, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam.

He had been interrogated the night before by MACC officers at their office, located on the 14th floor of the same building.

The MACC was investigating the alleged misuse of Selangor government allocations.

On Jan 5, coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict in the inquest into Teoh’s death, ruling out both suicide and homicide.

Subsequently, the government caved in to public pressure and established the commission now sitting.

It is investigating both the cause of Teoh’s death and MACC’s interrogation methods. The inquiry is scheduled to end on April 25. - FMT