For a short while, the court was plunged into darkness when a commissioner did a 'strange test' on a witness.
KUALA LUMPUR: For a few minutes the court where the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was conducting its investigation into the death of Teoh Beng Hock went silent and dark when a member of the royal panel did “something strange” on a witness in a bid to refresh the latter’s memory.
Commissioner Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom, who is a consultant forensic psychiatrist, asked Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) assistant enforcement officer, Bulkini Paharuddin, to recall an incident outside a toilet where he claimed to have seen Teoh at the then Selangor MACC headquarters at Plaza Masalam.
Earlier, Bulkini, 48, repeated his testimony that he accompanied his witness, Tan Boon Wah, to the toilet door at 2.15am on July 16, 2009, and saw a Chinese man walking in.
Bulkini, who understands Mandarin, said he heard a loud voice “Ni Loh” (Mandarin for “it’s you”) and he believed, from the intonation and the loudness, that it had meant “it’s all because of you”.
Bulkini believed the voice came from Tan but he did not know if the Chinese man was Teoh. However, he later recognised the person, especially Teoh’s white pants, from an image from the TV3 news on television.
Then came the “memory-refreshing exercise”.
Said Hatta: “I’m going to to something strange”. He asked the court helpers to turn off all the projectors and computers as well as the court lights near the witness.
He then asked Bulkini to close his eyes and relax for 60 seconds.
“I want you to imagine you are at your favourite place in the world for 10 seconds. Then immediately bring your mind to the episode at the toilet. This is very important,” Hatta told Bulkini, who nodded.
“Imagine when you were with Tan (Boon Wah) and you saw a man coming in… till the time you heard the exclamation of ‘Ni Loh’,” said Hatta, and indicated that the witness could start the exercise.
Pin-drop silence
A minute of pin-drop silence ensued until Hatta said Bulkini could open his eyes and describe what he saw, especially the appearance and apparel of the unknown person, on a blank piece of paper.
He also asked Bulkini to repeat the “meditation exercise” to visualise the image of Teoh’s body that he had seen on the TV news.
When asking Bulkini to read out what he had written, he warned: “You’ve sworn to tell the truth here. And Allah is your witness and you’re answerable in the afterlife.”
Bulkini nodded and read out: “I saw a person in white pants, he had his head bowed… he opened the toilet door with his right hand. He wore a black top.”
“(For the TV image), I saw a person lying on the floor in a gruesome condition. Black top and white pants.”
Hatta then asked Bulkini to tell the commission how long it took and what he was in his mind when the television image triggered the memories of the white-coloured pants.
“Now in my mind, (the white pants) is all I can see. I waited (about a week to reveal) because I was afraid to tell anyone immediately. I was fearful that it would end up like this… people accusing me (of lying).”
Earlier, Bulkini was rapped by RCI chairman James Foong for not being fully aware of the details of the investigation when he was involved in bringing Tan in for questioning.
Foong: You said (the then deputy director Hishamuddin Hashim) gave a short briefing. But you’re saying you went there but don’t know much about the whole operation?
Bulkini: Later on, my superior told me what it was all about.
Foong: It means that officers go to briefings and still dont’ know the whole scheme of things… you just follow the team, just follow orders?
Bulkini: Yes.
Foong: If I gave a briefing, I would state the purpose of an operation. This is like a young chick blindly following its mother…
Bulkini: No… I…
Foong: Then you (might as well) not go in the briefing. Just stay outside. In my opinion, you are not telling the truth.
Bulkini: Your honour… I tell the truth, we are not fully briefed because MACC does not want information to be leaked.
Foong: Your explanation is unreasonable. If this is true, then the weakness lies with your superiors.
When questioned by Bar Council’s Cheow Wee, Bulkini also admitted that it was possible that the Chinese man he saw at the toilet was not Teoh.
“Is there a possibility you were wrong (about the man being Teoh)?” asked Cheow, to which Bulkini said yes.
He also said that when he heard the shout, he was more worried about continuing eating his meal as his hands were still unwashed.
He denied allegations by Tan that he had tortured him (Tan) by swinging a pouch at Tan and pointing a finger at his face.
Bulkini also denied purposely switching the lights on and off in the room where Tan was interrogated. He said there were no lights at all at all times, but it was bright enough in the room.
‘I know Tan’s tricks’
Bulkini said he had already known Tan’s tricks from the very beginning.
“I already knew his (Tan’s) tactics. He will do all these and blame people. He was rummaging through his things and breaking some things when we first met him at his home. I know he wanted to purposely do this to say that we stole his things. That’s why I asked him to check if he lost anything. He is smart, but I am experienced,” said Bulkini.
Bulkini also described Tan as a “hot-tempered” person as he had scolded his own wife in front of MACC officers.
“I understood some things he and his wife said. His wife had said ‘I already told you not to do this kinds of things,’ and he said ‘you shut up, I know what to do’,” alleged Bulkini.
During questioning by MACC laywer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Bulkini said he interpreted the “ni lo” as an angry expression meaning “ini you punya pasal(this is all your doing)”.
Commissioner T Selventhiranathan then pointed out that “ni lo” could be interpreted in many ways, including a friendlier “oh, it’s you!”
Bulkini said he would have investigated the commotion in the toilet if he knew Teoh was actually an MACC witness.
He disagreed that he had anything to gain by making up the story and agreed that he could have concocted a more elaborate conversation if he had wanted to.
At one point, when Shafee asked Bulkini if the man he saw at the toilet was wearing a black jacket as seen in the photos of Teoh’s body, Selventhiranathan warned Shafee of giving the witness hints.
This prompted Shafee to say: “This is going on unbelievably, consistently. So many have been asking leading questions but I’m the only one being pointed out. The Bar Council, supposedly neutral, asks even more leading questions but I have never objected and the commissioners are especially silent.Why me? Especially you Mr commissioner (Selventhiranathan).”
Small talk
Later, Putrajaya MACC intelligence officer Hafiz Izhar Idris, 27, took to the stand. He was part of the team investigating the Seri Kembangan case in which Teoh was involved and had sat with Teoh briefly during the first hour he was at the MACC office.
Hafiz said he enquired about Teoh’s background, marital status, career and also about “false claims” later. However, he said it was just “small talk” and it wasn’t an “interrogation” ordered by his
superiors.
“When you asked Teoh whether he was married, did he mention that he was not but will be registered the next day?” asked Shafee, to which Hafiz said no.
Foong then said that the inquiry’s private investigator had found that there is no such thing.
“The investigations showed that there is no such registration. Actually, I don’t know where the impression that he is getting married all came about,” said Foong. Shafee said MACC’s investigations also showed the same result.
It was widely reported that Teoh had planned to register his marriage with fiancée Soh Cher Wei, then 28, the day he died. Soh had married Teoh posthumously on Aug 15, 2009 and gave birth to a son, Teoh Er Jia, in February the next year.
Teoh, a political aide to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.
He was interrogated the night before by MACC officers at their office, located on the 14th floor of the same building. They were investigating alleged misuse of state allocations.
On Jan 5 this year, coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict after an inquest, ruling out both suicide and homicide.
Subsequently, the government caved in to public pressure and established the commission now in session. It is investigating both the cause of Teoh’s death and if there were any impropriety in MACC’s interrogation of Teoh.
Hearing resumes tomorrow.
KUALA LUMPUR: For a few minutes the court where the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was conducting its investigation into the death of Teoh Beng Hock went silent and dark when a member of the royal panel did “something strange” on a witness in a bid to refresh the latter’s memory.Commissioner Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom, who is a consultant forensic psychiatrist, asked Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) assistant enforcement officer, Bulkini Paharuddin, to recall an incident outside a toilet where he claimed to have seen Teoh at the then Selangor MACC headquarters at Plaza Masalam.
Earlier, Bulkini, 48, repeated his testimony that he accompanied his witness, Tan Boon Wah, to the toilet door at 2.15am on July 16, 2009, and saw a Chinese man walking in.
Bulkini, who understands Mandarin, said he heard a loud voice “Ni Loh” (Mandarin for “it’s you”) and he believed, from the intonation and the loudness, that it had meant “it’s all because of you”.
Bulkini believed the voice came from Tan but he did not know if the Chinese man was Teoh. However, he later recognised the person, especially Teoh’s white pants, from an image from the TV3 news on television.
Then came the “memory-refreshing exercise”.
Said Hatta: “I’m going to to something strange”. He asked the court helpers to turn off all the projectors and computers as well as the court lights near the witness.
He then asked Bulkini to close his eyes and relax for 60 seconds.
“I want you to imagine you are at your favourite place in the world for 10 seconds. Then immediately bring your mind to the episode at the toilet. This is very important,” Hatta told Bulkini, who nodded.
“Imagine when you were with Tan (Boon Wah) and you saw a man coming in… till the time you heard the exclamation of ‘Ni Loh’,” said Hatta, and indicated that the witness could start the exercise.
Pin-drop silence
A minute of pin-drop silence ensued until Hatta said Bulkini could open his eyes and describe what he saw, especially the appearance and apparel of the unknown person, on a blank piece of paper.
He also asked Bulkini to repeat the “meditation exercise” to visualise the image of Teoh’s body that he had seen on the TV news.
When asking Bulkini to read out what he had written, he warned: “You’ve sworn to tell the truth here. And Allah is your witness and you’re answerable in the afterlife.”
Bulkini nodded and read out: “I saw a person in white pants, he had his head bowed… he opened the toilet door with his right hand. He wore a black top.”
“(For the TV image), I saw a person lying on the floor in a gruesome condition. Black top and white pants.”
Hatta then asked Bulkini to tell the commission how long it took and what he was in his mind when the television image triggered the memories of the white-coloured pants.
“Now in my mind, (the white pants) is all I can see. I waited (about a week to reveal) because I was afraid to tell anyone immediately. I was fearful that it would end up like this… people accusing me (of lying).”
Earlier, Bulkini was rapped by RCI chairman James Foong for not being fully aware of the details of the investigation when he was involved in bringing Tan in for questioning.
Foong: You said (the then deputy director Hishamuddin Hashim) gave a short briefing. But you’re saying you went there but don’t know much about the whole operation?
Bulkini: Later on, my superior told me what it was all about.
Foong: It means that officers go to briefings and still dont’ know the whole scheme of things… you just follow the team, just follow orders?
Bulkini: Yes.
Foong: If I gave a briefing, I would state the purpose of an operation. This is like a young chick blindly following its mother…
Bulkini: No… I…
Foong: Then you (might as well) not go in the briefing. Just stay outside. In my opinion, you are not telling the truth.
Bulkini: Your honour… I tell the truth, we are not fully briefed because MACC does not want information to be leaked.
Foong: Your explanation is unreasonable. If this is true, then the weakness lies with your superiors.
When questioned by Bar Council’s Cheow Wee, Bulkini also admitted that it was possible that the Chinese man he saw at the toilet was not Teoh.
“Is there a possibility you were wrong (about the man being Teoh)?” asked Cheow, to which Bulkini said yes.
He also said that when he heard the shout, he was more worried about continuing eating his meal as his hands were still unwashed.
He denied allegations by Tan that he had tortured him (Tan) by swinging a pouch at Tan and pointing a finger at his face.
Bulkini also denied purposely switching the lights on and off in the room where Tan was interrogated. He said there were no lights at all at all times, but it was bright enough in the room.
‘I know Tan’s tricks’
Bulkini said he had already known Tan’s tricks from the very beginning.
“I already knew his (Tan’s) tactics. He will do all these and blame people. He was rummaging through his things and breaking some things when we first met him at his home. I know he wanted to purposely do this to say that we stole his things. That’s why I asked him to check if he lost anything. He is smart, but I am experienced,” said Bulkini.
Bulkini also described Tan as a “hot-tempered” person as he had scolded his own wife in front of MACC officers.
“I understood some things he and his wife said. His wife had said ‘I already told you not to do this kinds of things,’ and he said ‘you shut up, I know what to do’,” alleged Bulkini.
During questioning by MACC laywer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, Bulkini said he interpreted the “ni lo” as an angry expression meaning “ini you punya pasal(this is all your doing)”.
Commissioner T Selventhiranathan then pointed out that “ni lo” could be interpreted in many ways, including a friendlier “oh, it’s you!”
Bulkini said he would have investigated the commotion in the toilet if he knew Teoh was actually an MACC witness.
He disagreed that he had anything to gain by making up the story and agreed that he could have concocted a more elaborate conversation if he had wanted to.
At one point, when Shafee asked Bulkini if the man he saw at the toilet was wearing a black jacket as seen in the photos of Teoh’s body, Selventhiranathan warned Shafee of giving the witness hints.
This prompted Shafee to say: “This is going on unbelievably, consistently. So many have been asking leading questions but I’m the only one being pointed out. The Bar Council, supposedly neutral, asks even more leading questions but I have never objected and the commissioners are especially silent.Why me? Especially you Mr commissioner (Selventhiranathan).”
Small talk
Later, Putrajaya MACC intelligence officer Hafiz Izhar Idris, 27, took to the stand. He was part of the team investigating the Seri Kembangan case in which Teoh was involved and had sat with Teoh briefly during the first hour he was at the MACC office.
Hafiz said he enquired about Teoh’s background, marital status, career and also about “false claims” later. However, he said it was just “small talk” and it wasn’t an “interrogation” ordered by his
superiors.
“When you asked Teoh whether he was married, did he mention that he was not but will be registered the next day?” asked Shafee, to which Hafiz said no.
Foong then said that the inquiry’s private investigator had found that there is no such thing.
“The investigations showed that there is no such registration. Actually, I don’t know where the impression that he is getting married all came about,” said Foong. Shafee said MACC’s investigations also showed the same result.
It was widely reported that Teoh had planned to register his marriage with fiancée Soh Cher Wei, then 28, the day he died. Soh had married Teoh posthumously on Aug 15, 2009 and gave birth to a son, Teoh Er Jia, in February the next year.
Teoh, a political aide to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.
He was interrogated the night before by MACC officers at their office, located on the 14th floor of the same building. They were investigating alleged misuse of state allocations.
On Jan 5 this year, coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict after an inquest, ruling out both suicide and homicide.
Subsequently, the government caved in to public pressure and established the commission now in session. It is investigating both the cause of Teoh’s death and if there were any impropriety in MACC’s interrogation of Teoh.
Hearing resumes tomorrow.
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