Finally, Beng Hock's torturer dropped from EAIC taskforce

The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) has dropped its senior assistant director Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim from its taskforce probing two death-in-custody cases.

“The Integrity Commission has decided that Mohd Nadzri will no longer be involved in any task related to the task force.

“He will remain seconded to the commission to pursue the other tasks to be carried out,” EAIC chairperson Heliliah Mohd Yusof said in a statement today.

However, no reason was given for Mohd Nadzri’s removal from the taskforce.

The move follows the revelation that he was the same Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer who interrogated another death-in-custody victim, political aide Teoh Beng Hock (above), and MACC’s recommendation that Mohd Nadzri be taken off the taskforce.

The six-member taskforce was formed to investigate the deaths of N Dharmendran (below) and R Jamesh Ramesh while in police custody.

However, this soon raised eyebrows when it was suspected that the person named Mohd Nadzri in the team is the same officer who had interrogated Teoh in 2009. Teoh was later found dead at the then MACC office in Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam.

MACC on June 13 confirmed that Mohd Nadzri was on loan to the EAIC and asked for him to be removed from the taskforce, supposedly to avoid controversy.

“The MACC does not want an MACC officer to be linked to any controversy, regardless of whether it involves MACC or EAIC,” it said in a press statement last week.

During a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into Teoh’s death, Mohd Nadzri was the 24th witness to testify.

He was the person who recorded Teoh’s statement hours before his death, which the RCI later ruled to be suicide as the result of continuous and aggressive questioning of him by MACC officers.

However, the RCI did not implicate Mohd Nadzri in any wrongdoing, but pointed to three others - former Selangor investigations unit head Hishamudin Hashim, investigation officer Mohd Anuar Ismail and assistant superintendent Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus.

The trio were never punished.

- Malaysiakini