SHAH ALAM, Feb 17 — The Attorney-General’s application to revise the “open verdict” in the Teoh Beng Hock death inquest is set to be heard on May 23 at the High Court here.
After 17-months of hearings, Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas had ruled out both suicide and homicide in his open verdict at the inquest into the death of the DAP aide.
DAP chairman Karpal Singh, who is a lawyer for the Teoh family, said he believed Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was seeking to revise the open verdict to a suicide finding.
“I don’t think the A-G is asking for homicide here,” Karpal told reporters later outside the courtroom today.
The veteran lawyer also dismissed the ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating Teoh’s fatal plunge, which is to complete its probe and submit a report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong by April 25.
“As far as we’re concerned... we’re not participating in that one. It doesn’t matter to us anymore,” said Karpal.
Teoh’s family withdrew from the RCI yesterday after the panel decided to continue the inquiry despite a proposed judicial review over the appointment of deputy public prosecutors (DPPs) as conducting officers.
Yesterday, Karpal called the Attorney-General’s Chambers “inconsistent” for seeking such a revision while insisting that its officers involved in the RCI were independent.
He added that the RCI was effectively an “inferior tribunal” in light of the ongoing revision proceedings at the High Court here.
“We would have thought this (revision application) is withdrawn or the (inquiry) deferred until this is heard. That’s why we’re not participating,” said Karpal today.
The RCI, which is led by Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen, has been off to a rocky start since hearings began on Monday.
The commission had excluded Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand from its witness list, despite her having brought attention to the injuries Teoh had suffered on his neck before he fell to his death on July 16, 2009.
Dr Pornthip was the only one out of five forensic experts at the inquest who supported the Teoh family’s claims of foul play, although she declined to repeat her previous assertion that Teoh’s death was “80 per cent” homicide.
Azmil had confirmed the existence of the injuries.
The coroner also raised doubts that Teoh could have exited unaided from the window on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam here, the then Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters, before his fatal plunge.
The former political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam after overnight interrogation by MACC officers.
Azmil, however, had said he could not find enough evidence to confirm that Teoh’s pre-fall injuries had contributed to the 30-year-old’s death.
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