Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz remained unfazed by DAP chairman Karpal Singh's attempt to cite him for contempt of court, for calling renowned Thai pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand "a liar."

"He wants to cite, cite-lah. Karpal can cite me to the world court, who cares. Bring it on. I have no worries at all," the de-facto law minister told reporters in the Parliament lobby today.

parliament gobind singh ban over nazri mistake 251108 04 On Apr 11, just hours after an exclusive on Pornthip's decision not to attend the resumption of the Teoh Beng Hock inquest on April 20, Nazr i ( left ), told Malaysiakini that Pornthip is a liar, who was "lying at the inquest and she is lying now."

An application to cite Nazri for contempt of court was filed by Karpal on April 16.

Nazri stressed that while the veteran politician may initiate the proceedings, the decision whether he is in contempt or not, is not in Karpal's hands.

"Let the court decide. It's not for him to decide," he added.

Asked if he still stood by his earlier 'liar' statement, Nazri replied: "Yes... I mean for me."

Finding out the truth 

However, after hearing Pornthip's testimony in the last inquest, he said, what is more important is finding out the truth.

"As a minister in charge of the law, I want to get into the bottom of all this. She opened up a new dimension that it is 80 percent homicide, of course I'm interested."

"If there is an element of homicide, I want to know. I also want to know who did it because a lot of insinuations are towards the SPRM (Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission). Even if SPRM is responsible, I want to take action against those people."

But what is puzzling, said Nazri, is that after opening up the can of worms and creating a lot of expectations, the Thai pathologist suddenly decided not to come.

However he said that he knew the reason why the Thai doctor could not come to the inquest, and it was the same as his earlier claim, that Pornthip was a liar.

"The reason given by the (Thailand) Ministry of Justice, in a letter written to Menteri Besar of Selangor, was that she had a prior engagement. Yet she made a press statement that she's being harassed by higher officials. Definitely that's a lie."

NONE Lie number two, said Nazri, was when Pornthip ( right ) accused higher officials of harassing her.

"Higher officials means me, as minister of law, Hishamuddin Hussein as home affairs minister, the IGP or the AG. I contacted all of them, I asked them if there was any harassment but they said no, it's another lie. So of course I'm very upset."

Nazri concluded by saying again that he believed Pornthip lied in her testimony during the inquest.

"To me, she must have lied. She is not able to come back and adduce more evidence to show that she is right. She upsets me because I want to get to the bottom of this. That is all."

Pornthip is the star witness in the inquest into the death of political secretary Teoh who was found dead on the roof of a building housing the Selangor headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission scant hours after he was questioned by the anti-graft body.

She claimed in her testimony during the inquest that she was "80 percent sure that it is homicide", ruling out suicide as was reported by government pathologists who presided over the first and second Teoh autopsy.

Her testimony has drew a strong reaction from Teoh's family. But her no-show at the upcoming inquest may take the steam out of efforts to prove foul play in Teoh's untimely death.