The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock will for the first time hear testimony from a "mystery witness" alleged to have been a victim of torture by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

The person will be called to give evidence pertaining to a police report he lodged last year against several MACC officers alleging they had slapped, kicked and beat him to the point of causing injury when questioned.

Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas today decided that the police report lodged on Sept 11 last year by the complainant was relevant in helping the inquest determine the cause of Teoh's death.

Laywer Gobind Singh Deo, who is holding a watching brief for Teoh's family, told the court the "mystery witness" could throw light on the methods of questioning by MACC officers and thus show that there had been inconsistencies in the testimony provided MACC enforcement officer Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus during the course of the inquest.

Teoh, 30, a political aide to Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found death on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam here on July 16.

He had been questioned by the MACC overnight pertaining to alleged abuse of state funds in the Selangor goverment at the Selangor MACC office located on the 14th floor of the same building.

‘The inquest is not a trial’

Azmil, however, said the scope of testimony of the "mystery witness" would be limited to whether Mohd Ashraf was involved in the questioning and whether physical force was used.

However, lawyer Abdul Razak Musa, who is holding a watching brief for MACC, maintained that the police report was irrelevant and cited three grounds.

They were that the report was lodged about 10 months ago, before Teoh's death; Mohd Ashraf's name was not mentioned in it; and the complainant was a suspect in a case unlike Teoh who was only deemed a witness.

Abdul Razak, who received a copy of the report from Gobind Singh this morning, also questioned its truthfulness and suggested that Mohd Ashraf not be questioned about its contents.

"The inquest is not a trial, and there are no provisions for cross-examination of witnesses. The coroner only needs to evaluate all the evidence presented and decide whether to accept the testimony of witnesses," said Abdul Razak, who previously had worked as a magistrate for six years.

‘MACC has something to hide’

Gobind Singh in countering Abdul Razak, stressed that the police report which was revealed to the court on Aug 28 was important to prove that testimonies provide by four MACC officers were mere denials and devoid of any credibility.

"There is no need to be afraid? If you did not do it, just say so, this shows MACC has something to hide when in fact we are just calling our witness to vouch for the truthfulness of the report," said Gobind.

Mohd Ashraf, when testifying on Aug 28, had told the court he had never used force on Teoh or other witnesses when questioning them, but could not say if other officers did so.

In his testimony today, he confirmed that he had never been questioned by police regarding torturing of witnesses and neither had he been booked for injuring others.

Besides this, Mohd Ahsraf also said Teoh appeared nervous when shown four documents that were printed from his notebook computer and kept turning them over. The documents were pertaining to claims for payment that had been signed on behalf of Ean.

Today was the 18th day of the inquest. It will resume tomorrow.