Apart from the family of political aide Teoh Beng Hock, a civil group formed to support Teoh and some NGOs are also unconvinced by the royal commission of inquiry's finding that Teoh had committed suicide.

malaysian for beng hock pc on rci findings 220711 01 They insist that it was murder, since Teoh was under the custody of MACC at the time of his death.

"We categorically reject the unconvincing conclusion by the royal commission that Teoh was driven to suicide. We stress that it is the MACC's torture, whether physically or mentally, including threats to his life, that killed Teoh," said the group, which calls itself Malaysians for Beng Hock Movement, in a joint statement with other NGOs.

"The MACC and the government must bear the full responsibility for the safety and human rights of all lives in their custody; any happening in the government agency that causes custodial death constitutes murder or homicide," the group said.

malaysian for beng hock pc on rci findings 220711 irene The statement was read out by Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez ( right ) at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this morning. Other NGOs present included Suaram, Youth For Change and the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

They said that the 124-page report published yesterday has proven that Teoh had not been released in the early morning of July 16, 2009, as claimed by the MACC, and he was still non-voluntarily in the custody of MACC.

Today’s statement stressed that “MACC’s torture killed Teoh Beng Hock”, and the royal commission has lost the confidence of the public.

Four grounds to reject report

Irene also said that they have four grounds for rejecting the RCI conclusion.

(1) The five commissioners were appointed by the government without consultation with Teoh’s family; the government had ignored the candidates proposed by the 126 civil society organisations. Now the outcome of the undemocratic process has disappointed the public

(2) The royal commission is not independent and impartial; the refusal by three conducting officers from the Attorney-General’s Chambers to withdraw led to the boycott by Teoh’s family. This severely tainted its image.

(3) The former British police officer Michael Leslie Squires, who acted as an independent investigator, did not proactively look for the truth; he visited Sinchew Daily to search for Teoh’s previous records and inspected his shoe size, which were focused solely on the psychological problem and the inference that Teoh had committed suicide.

(4) The royal commission had failed to investigate any significant physical evidence to find out the possibility of murder or homicide. The commissioners had ignored Malaysians for Beng Hock’s calls to search all MACC’s transmitted telephone data; to administer a professionally supervised lie detector test upon all MACC officials; to obtain DNA samples from all MACC officials once again and re-do the DNA tests.

Irene expressed regret that the RCI report has put the blame on Teoh Beng Hock, and not on government institutions.

malaysian for beng hock pc on rci findings 220711 kua kia soong Suaram director Kua Kia Soong ( right ) added that the RCI’s recommendations were weak, only coming up with suggestions like putting up CCTV cameras at the entrance to MACC offices.

Kua even described the RCI report as “very lame”.

He also urged Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, IGP Ismail Omar and MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed to resign.

“Heads must roll,” Kua said, adding that and only then could there be reforms in the government agency.

KLSCAH civil rights committee chief Liao Kok Fah pointed out that until now, no MACC officer had resigned to take responsibility for the TBH incident.

Even worse, Liao said, one of the three officers named by RCI as responsible for the death of TBH, Hishamuddin Hashim, was promoted during the period.

He also called on Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to take responsibility and step down.

Irene also announced that they would hold a candlelight vigil on at 9pm July 29 in a silent protest against the RCI report and all custodial deaths.

“We call on members of the public to join the vigil to send out a clear message to the government: ‘Stop the custodial deaths!’”

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