KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Teoh Beng Hock could not have committed suicide, his parents maintained during their negligence suit hearing in court today, four years after the controversial death of their son, who was a DAP political aide.
The bereaved couple, who have been fighting tooth and nail to seek justice for Beng Hock, reminded the court that despite the many probes on the case, no one has yet been held accountable for his death.
Beng Hock’s father, Teoh Leong Hwee, said he could not accept a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI)’s 2011 findings that his son had taken his own life.
“I cannot accept this report. It’s not possible that Teoh Beng Hock committed suicide,” the taxi driver told Senior Federal Counsel Azizan Md Arshad when he was cross-examined as the sixth witness.
“He’s an optimistic person, he seldom has problems,” the man in his 60s had said earlier.
Azizan also asked Beng Hock’s mother Teng Shuw Hoi if her son could have been driven to suicide by problems that were not within her knowledge.
“I disagree,” the 60-year-old housewife replied when testifying as the seventh witness, having previously said that Beng Hock seldom had problems and would share anything that troubled him with her.
In their separate written statements, both Teng and Leong Hwee made identical comments about the family’s continued grief over the death of Beng Hock.
“Until today, our family still have not fully made peace with the loss of TBH and we are still very pilu dan sakit hati (sorrowful and heart-broken) as long as there is no information regarding my son’s death,” they said when expressing their dissatisfaction.
“Furthermore, the MACC officers that were involved in my son’s death are not accountable for what happened to TBH. No one has been arrested or charged in court,” they added, using the initials for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
When quizzed on why the plaintiffs were claiming 80 per cent of his net income, Beng Hock’s mother said they needed his income to occasionally supplement their living expenses, also testifying that he had provided the family with RM600 each month.
The hearing before High Court judge Rosnaini Saub will resume at 2.30pm tomorrow, with the plaintiffs’ lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo telling the court that two witnesses are expected to appear tomorrow.
On October 30 last year, four of Beng Hock’s family members — his parents, his then fiancee Soh Cher Wei and his son Teoh Er Jia — had filed the negligence suit against the MACC, the government and 12 others.
The family is seeking damages for sadness, loss of dependency and negligence on the part of the defendants in his death.
They are arguing that the MACC had allegedly failed to explain how Beng Hock was found dead, and claimed the anti-corruption agency’s officers had “wrongfully attacked” the political aide to Selangor lawmaker Ean Yong Hian Wang during questioning, causing the “witness” to feel fear, torment, extreme distress and apprehension of immediate physical violence.
But the MACC and the government counter-claimed that Beng Hock’s own negligence had caused his death.
Yesterday, administrative assistant Ramli Shafiai had testified on Beng Hock’s last salary slip, while Restaurant Joon Chan’s owner Pang York Tee had gave evidence as the second witness on the RM5,718 catering bill paid by Beng Hock’s family before and during the funeral.
Beng Hock’s then fiancee Soh testified as the third witness yesterday, while the fourth witness and Teoh’s former employer Ean Yong Hian Wah today disagreed that pressure arising from the MACC probe had caused his death.
The fifth witness, China Press advertising sales representative Lai Mooy Kiau today confirmed that Teoh’s family had paid for his obituary in the Chinese-language daily.
In July 2009, Beng Hock was interrogated by MACC officers overnight before the 30-year-old groom-to-be was found dead the next day.
The DAP political aide’s body was found on July 16, 2009 at a fifth-floor landing of Shah Alam’s Plaza Masalam, with the Selangor MACC’s office being located on the 14th floor then.
On January 5, 2011, coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas had delivered an open verdict at the end of an inquest into Beng Hock’s death, ruling that his death was neither a suicide nor a homicide.
On July 21, 2011, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Beng Hock’s death found that he was driven to suicide after aggressive, relentless and oppressive interrogation by three MACC officers.
In a separate court matter, the Court of Appeal has fixed January 23 next year to hear an application to review the Coroner’s Court’s 2011 open verdict on Beng Hock’s death.
