By Debra Chong
Jul 21, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 — A royal commission has ruled that Teoh Beng Hock committed suicide as a result of pressure from aggressive and continuous questioning by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers.
The MACC officers had wanted to pressure Teoh to be a witness in their case against a DAP assemblyman for alleged abuse of public funds.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Nazri Aziz disclosed the finding today which, he said, was unanimous.
The royal commission of inquiry also found three MACC officers to have breached standard operating procedures.
It recommended that action be taken specifically against the three MACC officers.
Nazri told reporters the government would leave it to the police to take the necessary action against the three MACC officers.
He said the police would have to open an investigation and take the matter up with the Attorney-General’s Chambers for any potential prosecution.
RCI chairman Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen submitted on June 22 the report by the RCI into Teoh’s death two years ago.
The five-man RCI wrapped up its report on June 15 after having heard testimony from 70 witnesses in its bid to unravel the mysterious circumstances behind Teoh’s death.
The 30-year-old DAP political aide was found dead on July 16, 2009 on the fifth-floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after he was questioned overnight by MACC officers at their then-Selangor headquarters on the 14th floor.
The coroner’s inquest had in January returned an “open verdict” ruling out both suicide and homicide some 18 months after Teoh’s death.
The government was then forced to establish the RCI, which first met in February, with two terms of reference: to probe how Teoh plunged to his death and to look into MACC’s investigative methods.
Foong also said only three copies of the report were prepared, one each for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and himself.
The other four members of the RCI were retired Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, former Court of Appeals judge T. Selventhiranathan, Penang Hospital senior consultant forensic pathologist Bhupinder Singh and Mohamed Hatta Shaharom who is dean of the Cyberjaya Medical Science College University and a consultant forensic psychiatrist.
The report will be on sale from 10am tomorrow at the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya.
The 124-page report is retailing at RM45 a copy and is available in both English and Bahasa Malaysia.