July 29 decision on judicial review into Beng Hock’s death

 

The late Teoh Beng Hock’s parents want the High Court to compel the inspector-general of police to carry out a complete investigation into their son’s death. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: 

The High Court has set July 29 to deliver its ruling on a judicial review application brought by the family of Teoh Beng Hock against the police over his death in 2009.

Lawyer Harshaan Zamani, a member of the legal team representing Beng Hock’s father Teoh Leong Hwee and mother Teng Shuw Hoi, said oral submissions were made before Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh on June 4.

Finally, a decision will be delivered, although the application was filed quite some time back,

 he told FMT.

The High Court had on June 16, 2022 granted the family leave to file an application for judicial review, six months after the application was filed.

The late Beng Hock’s parents are seeking a court order to compel the inspector-general of police (IGP) to carry out a complete investigation into their son’s death.

The government, the IGP and the Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director have been named as respondents in the application.

The couple is also seeking several declarations, including one that states the police were negligent for failing to complete the probe within a reasonable time.

Teng, in her affidavit, said the police had failed to investigate Beng Hock’s death despite a Court of Appeal ruling in the family’s favour in 2014.

She said the police had formed three separate task forces – in 2011, 2014, and 2018 – supposedly to investigate the death and the last update on the status of the investigation was provided in 2021.

In 2014, a three-member Court of Appeal bench ruled that Beng Hock’s death was caused by the act of a person or persons unknown, including Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers, who had questioned him overnight before he was found dead.

The High Court had also recorded an out-of-court settlement, in which the family was awarded RM600,000 in damages for negligence.

Beng Hock, then a political aide to Selangor executive councillor and DAP’s Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth-floor service corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.

He had been held there overnight and questioned by MACC, which had its Selangor headquarters on the 14th floor of the building.

An RCI in 2011 determined that Beng Hock had been driven to suicide by MACC’s aggressive questioning. - FMT