The late Teoh Beng Hock.
The magistrate’s court here today rejected the bid by the deceased’s family who wanted action taken against Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer Raub Ghani for lodging a police report against a key witness in the ongoing inquest.
Magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abbas said that in a contempt charge, the intention behind the act did not matter.
But he also pointed out that Raub’s action had neither prompted the police nor the Attorney General (AG) to investigate, arrest or charge Dr Pornthip for allegedly leaking as yet classified information.
“But from the facts of this case, there was no case of investigating by the police and AG and no charge filed against Dr Pornthip,” said Azmil.
“At this stage, the application for leave is rejected,” he concluded, after days of hearing submissions from both Teoh’s family and the MACC.
Azmil, who is also acting as the coroner in the inquest, then fixed 9.30am on Feb 19 to hear the findings of the second post-mortem by Sungai Buloh Hospital’s Dr Shahidan Md Noor.
Lawyers for the Teohs, Karpal Singh and his son, Gobind Singh Deo, told reporters they would not be appealing against the magistrate’s decision.
The Teohs filed the application after Raub had made a police report against independent Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand for allegedly leaking the results of the second autopsy.
The family’s lawyers believe the police report, citing an article published in a PKR-owned newspaper, Suara Keadilan, was an attempt to “interfere with the judicial process” as well as to “intimidate” Dr Pornthip who was brought in for a second opinion on how the 30-year-old political aide really died.
Teoh, a former aide to a Selangor DAP executive councillor, was found dead under mysterious circumstances last July while in the care of anti-graft officers who were investigating his boss.
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