Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim urged the Home Ministry to give a written guarantee that Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand will be safe in the country, to attend the ongoing Teoh Beng Hock inquest.

He said the state government appreciates the verbal assurance given by Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and attorney-general Abdul Ghani Patail of Dr Pornthip's safety, but it wants it formalised.

"We hope such guarantees can be translated to action. This is important to ensure the institution of justice in Malaysia is respected," Khalid said at a press conference after a Selangor exco meeting at Shah Alam today.

pornthip rojanasunand Pornthip ( left ) was supposed to take to the stand a second time yesterday in the inquest, but was not present.

The Thai Ministry of Justice had on Apr 8 sent an official letter to the Selangor government to inform them that the flamboyant pathologist could not attend.

It also received a letter from Pornthip a day later, claiming there was "political pressure" from certain parties connected with the Malaysian government, who did not want her to testify at the inquest.

Khalid said in his capacity as Menteri Besar, he wrote to Hishamuddin today to ask for an official written guarantee.

"Pornthip's presence is very important and necessary in seeking truth and justice in Teoh Beng Hock's death," Khalid said.

Pornthip, who was engaged by the Selangor government as a forensic specialist in the inquest, rocked the country when she said there was a possibility that Teoh was murdered when she first took to the stand in July last year.

A few months later in November, the director-general of Thailand's Central Institute of Forensic Science declared that there was an 80 percent probablility that Teoh was murdered, after standing as an observer during a second autopsy of Teoh's body, ordered by coroner Azmil Muntapha Abbas.