Mat Zain says MACC officers can be charged with Teoh’s suicide

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — A former senior police officer said today that three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers should be charged for abetting Teoh Beng Hock’s suicide following the release of the royal commission of inquiry’s (RCI) findings.
Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim told the Inspector General of Police in an open letter that then deputy director for Selangor Hishammuddin Hashim, officers Arman Alies and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus were culpable in the interrogation of Teoh.
The former Kuala Lumpur CID chief noted the RCI said the three men had left the former DAP aide “almost a mental and physical wreck.”
“The commission found that Teoh Beng Hock was driven to commit suicide, as per paragraph 119 and detailed reasons from paragraphs 120 to 201... I find that Hishamuddin, Anuar and Ashraf can be charged for Abetment of Suicide under Section 306 of the Penal Code,” said the former city criminal investigation chief.
The royal panel had said found that “Arman and Ashraf behaved like inquisitors in an inquisition at the second stage of the interrogation.”
“TBH had to face MACC interrogation heavyweights like Arman the bully [who would manipulate his witness to obtain evidence], Ashraf the abuser [who was Machiavellian in his method to secure evidence] and HH the arrogant leader [who would have no qualms in lying as long as the ends were achieved, regardless of the means employed],” the RCI report had pointed out.
Mat Zain told the IGP in his letter that the police could not simply leave it to the MACC to take disciplinary action against its officers but must take action as it was a crime “against public justice under the Penal Code.”
The ex-cop also said that the three officers and two others, Bulkini Paharuddin and Raymond Nion anak John Timban were all guilty of giving false testimony in court proceedings, punishable with up to seven years imprisonment under Section 193 of the Penal Code.
“I am shocked that MACC officers gave false testimonies so bravely in the commission’s proceedings. It is as if their actions were not criminal.”
However, Mat Zain said that their boldness led him to conclude that “they were either ill-advised or given guarantees by certain parties that they will not be charged. On their own, they will not dare give false testimony, what more before a royal commission.”
The RCI had unanimously ruled that Teoh, a former aide of Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, committed suicide as a result of pressure from aggressive and continuous questioning by anti-graft officers.
The five-man panel 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.
But Teoh’s family has rejected the commission’s verdict and are currently mulling a judicial review of its findings.