Appeal against Beng Hock inquest verdict deferred again
The judicial hearing over the open verdict arrived at by the inquest into political aide Teoh Beng Hock’s death at the Court of Appeal has been postponed again due to incomplete documentation.
The judicial hearing over the open verdict arrived at by the inquest into political aide Teoh Beng Hock’s death at the Court of Appeal has been postponed again due to incomplete documentation.
Justice Balia Yusof Wahi, who led the three-member bench today, fixed Jan 23 next year for the trial to commence.
He said the panel was in the dark over how the matter went to the Shah Alam High Court and it required sight of relevant documents including information on exhibits, witnesses’ statements and post-mortem reports by several pathologists.
Earlier, the court had in September postponed the hearing as the panel had yet to obtain the written judgment by the Shah Alam High Court.
In February last year, the Court of Appeal had granted Teoh’s family leave to appeal against the Shah Alam High Court decision in December, 2011, rejecting a judicial revision of the open verdict arrived at by the inquest into the DAP political aide’s death.
To this, Balia said the panel needed to refer to the Court of Appeal judges’ grounds of ruling before starting this hearing.
At this juncture, counsel for Teoh’s family, Gobind Singh Deo, requested a date for case management so that both parties could ensure proper filing of the documents.
Agreeing with Gobind, Balia however reminded both the deputy public prosecutor and Teoh’s family counsel to be present before the panel during case management, and not merely sending junior lawyers.
“This has been happened many times. When only junior lawyers are here, they can’t answer our (the judges) questions, so what’s the point?”
“You (both parties) have no other choice but to agree with me,” he said, fixing Jan 9 next year for case management.
In 2011, the Shah Alam High Court had dismissed the revision application to set aside the open verdict into Teoh’s death, ruling that while there were suspicious grounds that could lead to a conclusion, but based on the law, suspicion alone was not enough.
High Court Judge Abd Rahim Uda ruled that there was insufficient evidence or facts for the coroner to say that the death, which caught much attention nationwide, was due to suicide.
'Neither a suicide nor a homicide'
In January 2011, Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict, ruling that Teoh’s death was neither a suicide nor a homicide.
Teoh was found dead outside Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, where the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters was located, after he was interrogated overnight on July 16, 2009.
Asked about the year-long delay for the trial, Gobind said it was due to the heavy volume of documents which the court staff had to compile.
“It usually takes very long to produce a full record for appeal cases,” he explained when met outside the courtroom.
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