The Selangor government is awaiting legal opinion prior to adopting a more proactive role in relation to the conclusion of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock, Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said today.

He said the state government was waiting for the legal opinion of its counsel, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, following the release of the report by the RCI, which concluded that Teoh had committed suicide and that he was driven to it by the relentless and aggressive interrogation by several Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.

“The royal commission has done its part, and there are a lot more technical issues to be highlighted in order to give assurance, especially to the people of Selangor, on the elaborateness of these (RCI) findings,” he told reporters after attending a programme with the people of Kuala Langat district, near Banting.

Teoh, political secretary to Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, Selangor, on July 16, 2009, after giving a statement at the Selangor MACC office located on the 14th floor of the same building.  

The RCI was set up on Jan 26 after the coroner’s court had delivered an open verdict in the case.      

Malik had said that the Selangor government had withdrawn from the inquiry into the death of Teoh due to the inconsistency of the attorney-general in having his staff serve as conducting officers while also trying to revise the inquest verdict.

Fact-finding mission

On another matter, Abdul Khalid said Selangor was embarking on a fact-finding mission in relation to a directive of the state secretary that state civil servants could only be questioned by the MACC at their respective offices.

“We are in the process of fact finding and hoping to get the whole report ready within a week,” he said.

The circular, signed by former state secretary Ramli Mahmud, states, among others, that the Selangor state executive council, in its July 2009 meeting, decided that all staff who served under the state administration were not allowed to be interviewed by MACC officers outside their offices, but only at the state secretariat building.   

It also said that all meetings with MACC officers must be conducted between 8am and 6.30pm.  

The circular stated that the executive council’s decision included giving legal service to civil servants when they were questioned by MACC officers. The circular was drafted after the death of Teoh.   

- Bernama

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