Pornthip to testify in Teoh inquest

Famed Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand is coming to Malaysia to testify at the inquest of slain political aide Teoh Beng Hock after all.

The Justice Ministry in Thailand has apparently given the green light to the Selangor government, allowing her to testify to her findings on the state's behalf.

According to lawyer Gobind Singh Deo - who holds a watching brief on behalf of Teoh's family - Pornthip (right) had sent a letter to the state government recently, and also suggested several dates available for her to testify.

With that, Gobind said that he will be informing the Coroner's Court tomorrow morning when the inquest in expected to resume again, to fix a date for her to give her statements.

Magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abbas is to decide on the application allowing the pathologist to testify through a video link.

"So it is not necessary for that decision any more since she can come," said Gobind.

Malaysiakini understands that she could come as early as the first week of August.

When attempting to contact Pornthip, her aide, who did not want to be identified, said that the pathologist is willing to come, but refused to comment further.

'Political pressure' on Pornthip

It was previously reported that Pornthip, who was engaged by the Selangor government for her expertise in a government-to-government arrangement between Bangkok and Shah Alam, bowed out from testifying due to "political pressure".

She did not show up when it was her turn to testify on her findings for Teoh's second post-mortem on June 20. But earlier, she had said that she was concerned that her involvement in the controversial inquest could impinge on her work in the three troubled southern Thailand provinces where thousands have died in a Muslim separatist insurgency.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz (left) later called her a liar, claiming that she had lied in the inquest, and that she is also lying in her complaints.

She had also claimed that she was "followed" the last time she was in the country to conduct the second post-mortem.

An MACC officer had also lodged a police report against her, for allegedly leaking the results of the post-mortem.

However, the government has issued a guarantee last week on her safety if she attends the inquest.

In a written reply in parliament to Serdang MP Teo Nie Chieng, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that if the pathologist felt threatened, she must provide information to the police so that necessary action could be taken.

Teoh, 30, was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on July 16 last year, after overnight interrogation at the MACC office on the 14th floor of the same building over alleged abuse of state allocations.

From the first post-mortem conducted by two local pathologists, Pornthip had testified in court that there is an 80 percent probability that Teoh's death was homicide and 20 percent chance of it being suicide.