No unturned stones for the investigation of Teoh’s death

No stones would be left unturned for the investigations of Political Secretary Teoh Beng Hock, 30. Prime Minister Dato Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak, who is abroad promised full investigations for the sudden death.

Bernama.com has the story:

Saturday July 18, 2009

Najib: Promise to find the truth, police probe will be thorough

KUALA LUMPUR: The police will thoroughly and professionally investigate the death of Teoh Beng Hock to find out what actually happened, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He called on all quarters not to speculate or make statements, which could confuse the public.

“The Government hopes the people will remain calm and patient. Let’s leave it to the authorities to investigate,” Najib said in Medina yesterday.

Teoh, 30, the political aide to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on Thursday after giving his statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

His body was found nine floors below the commission’s office on the 14th floor of the building at 1.30pm.

Najib also conveyed his condolences to Teoh’s family and fiancée Soh Cher Wei, 28.

“I was deeply saddened when told of the incident. My sympathy goes out to Teoh’s family and his fiancée,” he said.

Teoh was assisting the commission in investigations pertaining to alleged misappropriation of allocations involving several Selangor assemblymen. — Bernama

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The pathologists for the post mortem revealed that the sudden death due to fall from heights. The Selangor CPO also was quoted to have statted investogations on the sudden death.

 The Star has the story:

Published: Saturday July 18, 2009 MYT 3:52:00 PM

Teoh died of injuries due to high fall: Pathologist

BANTING: Initial findings in the pathologist’s report on political secretary Teoh Beng Hock showed that he died of multiple injuries due to a high fall.

Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said they had yet to rule out foul play in Teoh’s death.

“Now that we know that his death was due to multiple injuries due to a fall from height, we want to know why he fell.

“For now, I will not say there is no foul play We will investigate thoroughly and wait for the full pathologist’s report,” he told a press conference after a Rakan Cop pragramme at Kuala Langat here Saturday.

DCP Khalid said the case was classified under sudden death report, for now.

The Selangor police have formed a task force lead by the state CID chief Senior Asst Comm I Datuk Hasnan Hassan to investigate the case, he said and urged all quarters to give their full cooperation in assisting police in their investigations.

DCP Khalid said the police did not receive report from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the incident.

Regarding the time of Teoh’s death, he said police would have to wait till the pathologist’s full report was ready in the next several days.

“We look into all angles and we have our theory in this case,” he said.

Teoh, 30, the political aide to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on Thursday after giving his statement to MACC.

His body was found nine floors below the commission’s office on the 14th floor of the building at 1.30pm.

He was assisting the commission in investigations pertaining to alleged misappropriation of allocations involving several Selangor assemblymen.

DCP Khalid said the police had recorded statement from 23 people with 17 of them were officers from including investigating officers and workers at the Plaza Masalam.

He said police would call a few more MACC officers to record their statements.

The police would conduct several raids and checks to get evidences,” he said, adding that Teoh’s colleagues and close family members would also be called for statements.

DCP Khalid also said the police have obtained Closed Circuit TV recordings from the Plaza Masalam building management.

“We have viewed the footage and would do comparison between the footage and the statements,” he said.

However, police could not get CCTV recordings from MACC office as the officer has CCTV facilities.

When asked if there were complaints that MACC officers were not in the office when Teoh’s body was found, he said police were told most of the officers were out on duty when police arrived about 1.30pm.

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Whether it is fair or not to blame MACC for Teoh’s death, is still a huge on going debate amongst Malaysians, especially in the bloggosphere. The fact still remain that Teoh’s body was found in the premise of Plaza Masalam, which owned by Man Fatt Bhd., MACC is just is just one of ythe tenant to that building and Teoh did not leave when he was allowe to leave at 345am and instead chose to stay and rest in the MACC office.

It is also believed that MACC has started its own internal investigations on the case. The Director General was said to want to go through everything that leads to Teoh’s death in an adjacent building that house the Selangor MACC and all investigation materials. Soon, the MACC is also believed to call for their own media conference on the matter and let the public know what happened when Teoh was called in, till the point he was allowed to leave at 345am.

Teoh was called in to have his statement recorded by MACC. According to sources within, MACC wants their statement to be prepared with the witness present and signed at every page of the statement.

We have reasons to believe that Teoh was said to to be frightened to leave even after the investigations was completed by 345am and wanted to rest on the MACC sofa. Who and why he is frightened is not certain. It is also believed that it has to do with the statement he had given to the MACC officer. One of the persons who was called in said Teoh was last seen napping on the MACC sofa.

The Star has the story:

Saturday July 18, 2009

Teoh was last seen napping

Reports by WANI MUTHIAH, EDWARD RAJENDRA, SIRA HABIBU, LOURDES CHARLES, ZULKIFLI ABDUL RAHMAN, DHARMENDER SINGH, ANDREW SAGAYAM, A. LETCHUMANAN, IVAN LOH, YENG AI CHUN, STEVEN DANIEL, DERRICK VINESH, YEE CHERN YUNN and CHEW WAN YING

PETALING JAYA: Teoh Beng Hock was last seen napping in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam hours before he was found dead on the fifth floor.

Teoh, the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, had requested to sleep in the office for a while because he was feeling tired.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said Teoh was no longer in their custody when he was found dead at 1.30pm on Thursday.

Teoh was brought in for questioning after the MACC raided Ean Yong’s office at the State Secretariat building at 4pm on Wednesday to facilitate investigations into alleged misuse of allocations by several state assemblymen.

“Teoh was let off after questioning. We do not know where he went after that,” Ahmad Said said yesterday.

He said the MACC should not be held responsible for Teoh’s death because he was no longer in their custody at the time of incident.

Ahmad Said called on opposition leaders and other quarters to stop making wild allegations. “Let the police carry out their investigation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kajang municipal councillor Tan Boon Wah, who was also questioned by the MACC in relation to the same case, said he saw Teoh in the MACC pantry at 6am on Thursday.

“He looked tired, but he didn’t say anything to me,” Tan added.

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Many believed that it has something to do with DAP being involved in the underworld links. This matter struck the chord on public opinion when two PKR relected representatives when on mainstream media of these claims. DAP elected representatives were said to have asked the local authorties to reinstate any entertainment outlets which licenses were revoked because of ‘immoral activities’.  This include places which were found to have involved with durg related activities when authorities like the Police do their raids.

How true this is, only time will tell. However it is important that everyone remained calm and not politicize on the matter as the Police and MACC were already on deep investigation. Cabinet will decide whether there should be a commission to investigate the sudden death. On the question on why Teoh’s pants was shreded at the back, when we spoke to journalist who covered previous suicide cases, it was said that the shreded pants were something similar in all the cases which involve fall from heights.

The DAP looks like all out to use Teoh’s death to trump up the anti establishment sentiments against the authorities and capitalise on this segmental outrage as a proof of political ploy of the majority ‘victimising’ the minority. After all, they have done this before. On the other hand, abuse-of-power convict Anwar “Drama King” Ibrahim is waiting to see chaos so that he could rise on the ashes of destructive establishment and assume power, something he cannot do if everything is stable. All these is also perfect for one-time-accused-for-sodomy Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim to use the motive of hegemony to deflect against the highly sensational Siaful Bukhary Azlan’s sodomy trial.

Regardless, the nation must come first. Give it time for all investigations on this case to complete. When the official statements are issued, then only we decide to get emotional or not.

* Updated 0720hrs

MACC Chief Dato’ Ahmad Said said as the MACC will give full disclosure on the findings of the internal investigations, pertaining to Teoh’s sudden death. DAP who politicized and made this a racial issue is also lambasted.

The Star has the story:

Sunday July 19, 2009

We have nothing to hide, says MACC chief

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is conducting its own internal inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s death and will make public its findings.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan said the commission had nothing to hide.

“We will reveal all. When we have all the facts ready, we will hold a press conference and give a full report,” he said.

Ahmad said the MACC would not be shaken by the attacks against it by political parties.

“Politicians can say what they like. But whatever they claim will not change the facts and evidence. The truth will be out soon,” he said.

He also chided those who had turned the incident into a racial issue.

Meanwhile, Suhakam is also carrying out its own investigation, the findings of which will determine whether it will conduct a full-scale public inquiry.

“The purpose is to gather all the facts, which will then be used to determine whether or not to hold a public inquiry,” said commissioner Datuk Dr Michael Yeoh yesterday.

Asked whether the MACC and others were bound to speak to Suhakam at this stage, Dr Yeoh replied: “Normally they would. But if they don’t, they will certainly have to at a public inquiry.”

In a statement, Suhakam disclosed that this was not the first complaint it had received against the MACC.

“In 2008, we recorded two complaints against MACC officers alleged to have used force when conducting investigations.

“The matter has been referred to the police and we have yet to receive a reply,” it said.

Suhakam also urged the Government to sign the UN convention against torture to show its commitment to addressing problems related to torture and degrading treatment, especially in light of Teoh’s death.

It noted that the long hours of questioning that Teoh had to endure could amount to mental torture.

Malaysian Bar president Ragunath Kesavan, meanwhile, called for the suspension of the officers involved in questioning Teoh or who had contact with him.

He also wanted all the investigation papers, diaries and logbooks seized to avoid allegations of tampering.