Teoh's death: AG's Chambers denies suppressing evidence

The Attorney-General's Chambers issued a statement this evening denying any suppression of evidence in the Teoh Beng Hock death inquiry after the MACC produced as evidence at the inquest proceedings earlier today a note found last year in Teoh's sling bag ‘that may throw some light regarding his death’.

The new evidence resulted in the hearing of the inquest to be postponed to Aug 18.

The statement explained that the AG’s Chambers was informed of the discovery of the note by Investigating Officer ASP Ahmad Nazri Zainal on Oct 7 last year, more than two months after Teoh's death.

Teoh, who was the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16 last year on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after giving a statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) located on the 14th floor of the same building.

The statement said that according to Ahmad Nazri, the note was not found when he first searched Teoh's sling bag after the incident.

It said Ahmad Nazri recently owned up that he did find the note when he searched the sling bag on July 17 last year but did not realise the significance of it as other documents were also found and that they were written in both Chinese and Roman characters.

The statement said the AG's Chambers was equally startled by the discovery of the note and had instructed an investigation to be carried out.

It said the note was immediately translated and there was sufficient cause to send it to be analysed by a document examiner at the Chemistry Department on Oct 9 and subsequently on Oct 20 last year.

It said the document examiner prepared his report and they were considered by Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail himself where the attorney-general was not convinced of the authenticity of the note due to insufficient samples to verify the handwriting, in particular the Chinese characters.

In addition, it said, the note was said to have been discovered some two over months after Teoh's death and that this would raise suspicion over its authenticity and discovery.

"Having considered these factors, Abdul Gani (right) was of the view that the note should not be tendered until and unless the investigation officer could provide a satisfactory explanation," the statement said.

It said the AG's Chambers was earlier briefed by the investigation officer that he conducted a thorough search after being advised by a psychiatrist that, ordinarily, a note would be left in a suicide case.

"As a result of this, the attorney-general decided to put the note in and directed the investigation officer to explain this in court to avoid any repercussion in future and let the coroner decide on its weight after considering the explanation by the investigation officer and the document examiner's report," it said.

The statement said the AG's Chambers felt that there was no suppression or withholding of evidence and that the decision for not tendering the note earlier was made based on the document examiner’s report as well as the discovery of the note which gave rise to suspicion.

"The Attorney-General’s Chambers will tender the document as evidence only when and until it is satisfied that any shroud of suspicion surrounding it is lifted," it said.

This morning controversy erupted when lawyers met coroner Azmil Mustapha Abas in chambers before the start of the inquest’s resumption.

Fifteen minutes later, Gobind Singh Deo, representing Teoh’s family, walked out of the meeting telling reporters: "This is abuse of the court process...".

After consulting with the family, Gobind said he was informed about a document that the prosecution had withheld.

Gobind said the prosecution did not explain why it held back the document, and claimed there was reason to believe that further evidence was being withheld.

– Bernama

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