ANALYSIS One of the main evidence used by the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to back its controversial conclusion that DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock had committed suicide was the psychiatric report submitted by psychiatrist Paul Edward Mullen.

A close look at the 11-page report submitted to the inquiry by Mullen - the emeritus professor of forensic psychiatry from Monash University hired by the Bar Council - found more factors pointing to Teoh not having committed suicide than otherwise.

This, however, seemed to have been overlooked and ignored by the RCI.

In his suicide risk assessment, Mullen classified Teoh as being firmly in the "lowest-risk group" when he was taken into Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) custody.

He did not conclude that Teoh had committed suicide, describing the DAP political aide as lacking all the factors usually shared among those liable to killing themselves.

Mullen wrote that he found Teoh had a regular employment, a partner whom he was soon to marry, had close family ties, a range of friends and colleagues, had not suffered a recent bereavement, and had no known financial problems.

"These are all social factors decreasing the risk of suicide. He was in early adult life (25-40 years), had no history of suicide attempts or self harm, did not gamble excessively, and had no family history of suicide. These are all factors which make suicide less likely.

"Teoh showed no evidence for a lowered mood, let alone depression, prior to being taken into custody, in fact, he appeared to have been more elated than usual because of the prospect of marriage and fatherhood," said Mullen.

He also ruled out any "dysfunctional obsessional traits or unusual rigidity".

"In my opinion, what we learned of Teoh's personality and behaviour do not suggest any increased risk of suicide."

It was also not stated anywhere in the report that Teoh had a "weak character", as initially claimed by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz to back the RCI's conclusion that Teoh had killed himself.

Retracting the remark about Teoh's purportedly weak character soon after, Nazri conceded that the 124-page RCI report contained no reference to the matter, and blamed his error on the government officers who prepared his statement and who have drawn inferences from parts of the RCI report as well as Mullen's report.

Mullen also said that if the purported 'suicide note' was not accepted by the RCI, it would significantly reduce the probability that Teoh had committed suicide.

The RCI report had rejected the note on the ground that the handwriting in the samples used to compare with the Chinese handwriting in the note could not be conclusively proved to be that of Teoh's.

The RCI had also excluded the evidence given by MACC officers that Teoh was cooperative and had voluntarily chosen to remain in the MACC building after the interrogation.

That, said Mullen, would further decrease the chances of suicide.

They had to frighten him literally to death

However, Mullen also specify some factors that could elevate Teoh from low-risk to high-risk in suicide.

Although he recognised increased risk of suicide for an individual being held in custody and charged with serious criminal offences, Mullen noted that Teoh was not charged and his witness statement did not seem to implicate him or anyone else with offences.

"This is not a context which, in my experience, leads to suicide in custody. There seems no reason for a rational individual who had made such a statement to conclude he had shamed himself or betrayed his colleagues.

"There is nothing of which I have been made aware to explain panic and distress sufficient to drive him to conclude his honour had been irreparably tarnished," read the report.

Out of the 37 paragraphs in the report, Mullen discussed the factors increasing the risk of suicide in only three paragraphs towards the end of the report.

"His concern for his family, and for his future wife and mother of his child, could have been turned into a weapon against him by a totally unscrupulous interrogator, as could his loyalty and sense of responsibility to his colleagues."

Mullen argued that certain interrogation techniques could be used to destroy a person's mental stability and induce such fears that even death seems preferable.

"Particularly vulnerable to such techniques would be a law abiding citizen with no prior experience of being in the power of apparently unconstrained authority, particularly if they were cut off from all contact with sources of help and support," Mullen added, referring to Teoh, whose mobile phone were confiscated during his custody under MACC.

"If he did kill himself, in my opinion, things are likely to have occurred both to undermine his psychological stability and to frighten him literally to death," read the conclusion of the report.

It was this part that the RCI quoted to strengthen its postulations that the "aggressive, relentless, oppressive and unscrupulous" interrogations had driven Teoh to kill himself. - Malaysiakini