Customs man's death causes buzz at RCI
The death of a senior Customs Department officer who fell from the third floor of the Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Jalan Cochrane this morning caused a buzz at the royal commission of inquiry into the death of Teoh Beng Hock.
The death of a senior Customs Department officer who fell from the third floor of the Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Jalan Cochrane this morning caused a buzz at the royal commission of inquiry into the death of Teoh Beng Hock.
Just before the inquiry panel stood down for the lunch break, panel head Justice James Foong, all of a sudden and distractedly asked the counsel present if any one of them had a Blackberry smart phone.
“Mr Leong do you have a Blackberry? (Because) there has been another death at an MACC office,” said Foong to Bar Council lawyer Christopher Leong. 
The lawyers appeared puzzled, until Foong told them that his phone had been "vibrating" constantly with alerts on the Customs officer's death.
News of this incident broke about 11am among the reporters carrying Blackberry phones, and who were covering the proceedings.
Teoh was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor service corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, where the Selangor MACC has its office on the 14th floor.
The RCI is also investigating if there was violation of procedures or abuse on the part of the MACC in connection with Teoh's death.
The inquiry this morning heard from Kajang local councillor Tan Boon Wah, who had been taken in as a witness by the Selangor MACC on the same day as Teoh.
Tan was held for more than 16 hours for his statement to be recorded.
MACC lawyer Muhammed Shafee Abdullah accused Tan of lying in his suit against the anti-graft agency that he was “tortured mentally and psychologically”.
Muhammad Shafee was referring to a case filed by Tan at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on July 22, 2009 against the MACC for questioning him after office hours.
“In your originating summons, you wanted the court to say investigations cannot be done after 5pm?” asked the lawyer, to which Tan agreed.
“Why didn't you sue MACC officers for the torture as you were claiming for cost and damages?
“In the affidavit you had only stated that questioning session in a duration of 17 hours went beyond office hours and you did not state that if you were tortured by MACc officers... it is as though nothing ever happened,” said Muhammad Shafee (right).
Tan said enforcement officers who were questioning him “kept switching the lights on and off” throughout the night and had hurled abuses at him.
Asked why he had excluded allegations of torture in the affidavit, Tan said: “I didn’t know the contents of the affidavit (because) Karpal Singh is the one who prepared it”.
Tan also said he neglected the claims of torture in his suit because he and lawyer N Surendran had already lodged a police report on July 17, 2009 on the issue.
‘I didn’t sue MACC for revenge’
During the inquest into Teoh’s death, Tan testified that he was held at the Selangor MACC office from 8.30pm on July 15 and only allowed to leave at 1.35pm the next day. 
Yesterday, he told the royal panel during his time there, he was forced to stand for four hours, from 10pm to 2am, and was roughed up during the questioning session.
To Muhammad Shafee’s suggestion that he had filed the suit “purposely” to “humiliate or destroy” the MACC, Tan (left) said: “It was not because of revenge... I went there as a witness but was not treated like one. I felt terrible... no rest, torture, threatened.”
The MACC counsel pressed on that Tan had not recounted the claims of torture to his lawyers “because it did not happen”, but Tan disagreed.
Muhammad Shafee: When was your statement taken by the police?
Tan: July 20, 2009 from 1am to 2am
Muhammad Shafee: You did not sue the police for (taking statements) after office hours?,
At this juncture, Tan laughed and said that the police “did not torture me”.
“The lights (during the questioning) were off because they (the MACC officers) allowed you to sleep? Your statement, yesterday, was as if lights were manipulated to torture you... was not correct?”
Tan kept to his statement that the lights in the room were being turned on and off repeatedly after the questioning session was over.
The councillor had won the case against MACC’s questioning hours at the High Court. However, the Court of Appeal had overturned the decision and this was retained by the Federal Court.
“You also did not state in your police statement that (MACC) officers pretended and wanted to hit you,” asked Muhammad Shafee, to which Tan concurred.
“(So) then you created stories of threats and unfair treatment to gain sympathy?” asked Muhammad Shafee, but Tan disagreed and insisted that his recountal was true.
Teoh, the political secretary to Seri Kembangan assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah, was taken in as a witness by the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) over a probe into alleged misuse of state funds by several elected representatives.
He was questioned overnight on July 15, 2009. His body was found on the fifth floor service landing of Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam, the next day.
An 18-month long inquest into Teoh’s death delivered with a open verdict in January, following which the RCI was formed to resolve the cause of Teoh’s death and if the MACC had violated any operating procedures.
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