Teoh's body will be exhumed on Nov 21

2009/11/09

SHAH ALAM: The Coroner's Court here today ordered the body of the late Teoh Beng Hock, who was laid to rest more than three months ago, to be exhumed on Nov 21 so that a second post-mortem on him can be carried out the next day.

Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas also ordered that the second post-mortem be handled by the Head of Pathology, Sungai Buloh Hospital, Dr Shahidan Md Noor and assisted by Dr K. Saravanan in taking the photos, in the presence of four forensic experts, at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

"The task of exhuming the body will be undertaken by the Sungai Buloh Hospital," he said.
The four forensic experts were Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim, Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand of Thailand and another expert to be appointed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Meanwhile, lawyer Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, representing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), said the MACC would ensure that the foreign expert appointed could attend the second post-mortem.

He also applied to the court to issue a written order in English to enable the MACC to inform their experts on the order.

Meanwhile Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, who is holding a watching brief for Teoh's family, told the court that the police would be there to ensure whatever was required would be done.

Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam, here on July 16 after being questioned by Selangor branch of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) overnight.

The Selangor MACC office is on the 14th floor of the same building. The family applied to have Teoh's remains exhumed following Dr Pornthip's testimony in the inquest into his death that there was an 80 per cent probability that Beng Hock was tortured and strangled.

Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim and Dr Prashant, who are government pathologists and had conducted the first post-mortem, had told the inquest that it was possible Beng Hock, an aide to a Selangor state executive councillor, had committed suicide.

Meanwhile, earlier in the proceedings, Abdul Razak said the allegation by the 20th witness, T. Sivanesan, that he was assaulted and abused by MACC officers on Sept 4 and 5 last year was done on purpose to discredit the MACC.

When cross-examining Sivanesan, Abdul Razak questioned the rationale of making the police report by the witness on Sept 11, 2008, whereas Sivanesan had been released on Sept 9 and the fact that he only sought treatment on Sept 12, although he claimed that he had been severely beaten to the extent that he had fainted twice.

"Even in court you are dramatising by bringing a torn underwear which was kept for one year before being brought to court. I put it to you that because you did not hand over the underwear to the police, you had torn it yourself," Abdul Razak said.

Sivanesan however denied all the suggestions put up by Abdul Razak by saying that he needed to discuss the matter with his uncle before lodging the police report.

Abdul Razak also suggested that discrepancy between the police report by Sivanesan on July 27, 2008 and his testimony in court particularly concerning the actual identity of the officers who had abused him, showed that the allegation was merely a fiction by the witness.

The proceedings will resume on Friday. - Bernama