The royal commission of inquiry probing the death of Teoh Beng Hock wants senior forensic consultant Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim, who conducted the first post-mortem, to “defend his reputation” as he had testified there was no evidence suggesting strangulation.

Panel head James Foong, after listening to Khairul’s testimony today, told the pathologist from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang to read through the report provided by Thai forensics expert Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand.

“Let the doctor defend his reputation which is at stake here,” said Foong.

Foong insisted on this as Porntip had, after observing the second autopsy, indicated that there was an 80 percent chance that Teoh’s death was due to homicide.

NONE She had noticed injuries on Teoh that suggested he was strangled, and said he was unconscious when he fell. Injuries to his anal region suggested penetration by an object before the fall.

This was contrary to Khairul’s ( right ) assertion that there were no external injuries on Teoh’s neck to indicate strangulation although there was a “small and superficial abrasion” on the left side.

The abrasion, said Khairul, could have resulted from the pen found in Teoh’s blazer pocket.

He also said that the deceased was alive during the fall as he is believed to have landed on his feet and probably attempted to break his fall.

No other externally-inflicted wound

Khairul, who had done the first autopsy with Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, said that, apart from the abrasion, he could not find any other externally-inflicted wound.

“When I saw the mark on the neck region it struck me to start the post-mortem by opening up the deceased’s head. I removed the layer of skin at his neck region and I found an area of haemorrhage," he said.

“External abrasion and internal haemorrhage are two different things... in my opinion the haemorrhage was caused by inside pressure, not from outside.

“The anal injuries came from landing on the buttocks. Pelvic bone fracture caused stretching of the anus and the cervical bone injured the anus."

He told the inquiry that he concluded that Teoh was possibly still conscious when he fell from the 14th floor window of Plaza Masalam, because the projectile distance also showed that he had jumped.

Pornthip's theory dismissed

Khairul explained that he found “gas bubbles in Teoh’s chest wall which indicated that he was still alive for a few minutes after the fall.

Commissioner Dr Bhupinder Singh, who is a pathologist, asked Khairul to explain why the gas bubbles had formed and Khairul said that it could be because the rib bones were fractured.

During the after session, Khairul was unable to establish why Pornthip had differed greatly from his theory on Teoh’s alleged fall.

He disagreed with Pornthip's report that Teoh's injuries on his anus were caused by penetration but concluded that it was in fact caused by fractured bones while the bruises on Teoh’s right ankle was a laceration caused by a fracture of the ankle bone.

He stressed that if there Teoh was strangled there would be blood spot in the eyes, but the absence of red dots in his eyes showed no signs of strangulation.

Asked why would Pornthip had hypothesised a possible strangulation, Khairul told the panel that, he does not understand her conclusion.

“I’m not sure what she really means,” he said.

RCI zeros inn on window

University Malaya Medical Centre Dr Prashant Naresh Sambekar was next to testify and stuck by his testimony during the inquest that Teoh squatted at the window sill before his fatal fall on July 16, 2009.

Prashant said that Teoh landed feet first following imprints of the 3mm window sill on both Teoh’s shoes.

coroner court teoh beng hock inquest visit macc 070809 windows.jpg “Teoh landed on his feet, then buttocks, upper limbs and then head,” he said.

He added that when Teoh fell nine floors from the MACC’s office on the 14th floor he was conscious and it was “intentional”.

“If not, the head or chest would land first,” he said.

Following this, Foong asked Prashant how could a person of Teoh’s body size could squat at the window sill given that window can only be opened from the inside up to 45 degrees.

Prashant stuck to his theory and added that he knew Teoh’s family was not happy with his opinion.

The inquiry will continue to probe both the government pathologists tomorrow.