It wasn’t me, says wife of former MCA chief over capsules for badminton star

Toh Puan Ong Ee Nah, seen here with her husband Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik during his cheating trial in October 2013, denies that she is the person behind the tainted cordyceps which led to Datuk Lee Chong Wei's suspension. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, April 30, 2015.The wife of former MCA president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik has come out to quash talk that she was the person who had given tainted cordyceps capsules to world badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei, which resulted in the latter's eight-month suspension by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

Toh Puan Ong Ee Nah told The China Press that while she and Lee were close friends, she was not the person that was alluded to in Lee’s recent doping case.

The identity of the person has been the subject of rife speculation on social media after The Malaysian Insider revealed yesterday that capsules tainted with banned anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone were given to him by the wife of a "very influential man in Malaysia".

Lee yesterday told news portal Malaysiakini that the woman in question was not the wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who is one of his avid supporters.

Lee was given a back-dated eight month ban by the BWF's anti-doping panel on April 27 after he tested positive for the banned substance at last year's world championships.

A BWF report said since around 2007 or 2008, the unnamed woman began giving Lee some of her own supply of pure cordyceps capsules, which she bought in raw whole form and had it powdered and made into capsule form at a traditional Chinese medicine outlet in Kuala Lumpur.

The report said the woman in question began to send Lee her cordyceps capsules on a regular basis as a gift. Some of the capsules were said to have been contaminated with dexamethasone.

"The athlete (Lee) does not wish to identify the lady by name because he fears the consequences for her, if she is associated with his doping case," said the 13-page report signed by BWF panel chairman, Rune B. Hansen.

The report, however, said Lee had named the woman during an “in-camera” session of the hearing, in the presence of the three panel members and a Malaysian lawyer.

"In the opinion of the panel, this strengthened his trustworthiness," the report added.

The report also said that a lawyer, Song Wei Kar, had in March last year visited the shop in Kuala Lumpur where the woman had her supply of pure cordyceps ground and made into capsules.

The proprietor confirmed to Song that he had helped the woman to make capsules from her supply of cordyceps.

However, he did not want to give a statement for fear that it would adversely affect his business.

The report said the proprietor acknowledged that his treatment of the cordyceps involved a potential contamination risk.

The former badminton world number one told the anti-doping panel that he had consumed two cordyceps capsules every morning in August 2014, including on the morning of the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships.

"How the contamination occurred is not known for sure, but most likely it occurred during the process of grinding the raw cordyceps into powder and putting this powdered cordyceps into the gelatin capsules in the shop in Kuala Lumpur," the report said.

Laboratory analysis also found the presence of dexamethasone "in and/or on the shell of one of the two capsules" that remained in the container of capsules used by Lee from August 2014, the report stated.

The panel held that the most likely reason for Lee's positive testing for the anti-inflammatory drug was because he had consumed cordyceps capsules and that the gelatin capsule shells were contaminated.

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