The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock will resume tomorrow despite an application by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for a stay of proceedings at the Court of Appeal today.

gavel justice judiciary law In a unanimous decision, the appellate court decided that the MACC’s application will be heard along with the appeal proper. It also rejected the commission’s application for an interim stay of the inquest.

Justice Low Hop Bing, leading a three-member panel, said it would be improper to disrupt the inquest as the court had read in the newspapers that other witnesses are to be called.

“The proper way is for the appeal to be heard along with the stay application. The appellate court will direct the registrar to fix an early hearing date to hear the application,” he said.

Senior Federal Counsel CK Wong from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, representing the MACC, then sought an interim stay as it had yet to obtain the grounds of judgment for the Petaling Jaya High Court’s decision in rejecting the stay application.

“If other witnesses are called in and the inquest is nearing its end, this application may seem nugatory (academic),” said Wong.

NONE On Sept 10, Petaling Jaya High Court judicial commissioner Yeoh Wee Siam had dismissed MACC’s application for a revision of the coroner’s ruling to allow T Sivanesan, an alleged victim of MACC torture, to testify at the inquest.

She also rejected the MACC’s request to expunge Sivanesan’s testimony, saying there was nothing illegal, incorrect and improper about the coroner's ruling to allow the witness to testify.

Yeoh also rejected an application for a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Written judgment to be expedited

To Wong’s argument, Low said the remedy would be for the court to direct the Petaling Jaya High Court judicial commissioner to expedite her written grounds of judgment.

“We will direct the court registrar to give the necessary instruction to expedite the grounds. In the meantime, the inquest will continue and this decision is unanimous,” he said.

The other judges on the three member panel were Justice KN Segara and Justice Ramly Ali.

NONE Appearing for Teoh’s family were Karpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo while lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar appeared for the Selangor government. MACC head of prosecution Abdul Razak Musa was also present.

Government-appointed lawyer Tan Hock Chuan and DPP Mohd Abazafree Mohd Abbas who assisted the coroner in the inquest were also present.

Sivanesan had testified earlier this month before coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas that he had been abused and tortured by a group of MACC officers.

Azmil ruled that the testimony was relevant to assist the inquest into determining the cause of death in Teoh’s case.

He also accepted Sivanesan’s police report together with a set of photographs of alleged injuries tendered in court.