Teoh Beng Hock’s family today filed an application for a judicial review to set aside the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) finding that the political aide had committed suicide.

teoh family sue macc officer intimidate prontip 050110 teoh meng kee The application which was filed by Beng Hock’s brother Teoh Meng Kee ( right ) at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today named the RCI commissioners - James Foong, Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, T Selventhiranathan, Dr Bhupinder Singh and Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom - as respondents.

“After reading the report I would like to clearly state what happened to Teoh Beng Hock from 3.30am to 7am on July 16, 2009, is not known to the respondents,” said Meng Kee in the application.

In the RCI report released last month, the commission postulated that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had instituted a “ fourth interrogation ” on Beng Hock during the wee hours while he was in custody.

The commission concluded that it was during that period that Beng Hock was pushed to the brink and eventually committed suicide.

“As advised by my counsel, I believe that a decision and/or an opinion and/or a finding of suicide cannot be made based on assumptions. It must be supported with evidence,” stated Meng Kee.

He was accompanied by his family members and lawyers Karpal Singh and Gobind Singh Deo when he met reporters at the lobby of the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in Jalan Duta.

  Aggressive interrogation

The 124-page report concluded that Beng Hock was "driven to commit suicide by the aggressive, relentless, oppressive and unscrupulous interrogation" of MACC officers and named three of them as responsible for Teoh's death.

Below are the excerpts of the RCI report:

NONE "The acts committed by these three persons, namely Hishamuddin Hashim, Mohd Anuar Ismail, and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus, were most probably in the form of another round of intensive interrogation of Teoh to coerce him into making a statement that it was Ean Yong Hian Wah ( left ) who directed him to commit unlawful acts in handling the allocation.

"This session must have been very taxing on Teoh, both physically and mentally. He had been deprived of sleep throughout the night and into the morning and had to endure persistent, aggressive and unscrupulous questioning.

"His physical condition, as described by (Mohd) Ashraf when fetching him the glass of water, was that Teoh had moved to sit in an upright position, very slowly.

"This is the fourth interrogation session to our minds (and) must have been the final straw that broke the camel's back," said the report.

Meng Kee added that the finding of suicide, which was reached without showing what had happened to Beng Hock from 3.30am to 7am, was "in contradiction with the law, invalid, irrational and completely unreasonable, and hence unsustainable in law".

He also said that the finding was unsustainable because the commission had taken into consideration "irrelevant factors" and/or did not include "relevant factors" to show that Beng Hock committed suicide.

Unacceptable silence

Meanwhile, Gobind demanded that the government explain why the Attorney-General's Chambers is mum on charging the MACC officers who were mentioned in the RCI report.

teoh family sue macc officer intimidate prontip 050110 gobind "The report made very harsh findings in respect of the treatment he (Beng Hock) received," said Gobind ( right ) who was frustrated over the lack of action since the report was released a month ago on July 21.

"There has not been any further inquiry or investigation pursuant to the findings. There is basis for a charge to be made. It is for the AG to explain why no action has been taken to bring any of these officers to book," he said.

If the AG decides not to charge the MACC trio for the offences pointed out in the RCI report, Gobind said, the former still owes the family and the public an explanation.

He added that he will raise the matter in Parliament and write officially to the AG.

"The family wants to know - if there is basis, charge, if there is no basis, tell us why - and let us decide if your grounds are reasonable enough for us to accept. But this silence is simply unacceptable. 

"If he is unable to give us a satisfactory response than he is not fit to be the AG of the country," said Gobind.

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