Hearing of appeal against open verdict in Teoh Beng Hock inquest adjourned to Jan 23

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PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has adjourned to Jan 23, the hearing of an appeal against the coroner’s court open verdict decision in the inquest into the death of Teoh Beng Hock due to incomplete record of appeal.

Court of Appeal judge Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi, who chaired a three-member panel, yesterday allowed the adjournment after lawyer Gobind Singh Deo informed the court that there were some documents and exhibits missing from the record of appeal.

He (Gobind) said documents that were missing included the coroner’s verdict, post-mortem photographs, documentary exhibits such as post-mortem reports and forensic experts’ documents and submissions made in the inquest by the respective counsel representing the Selangor Government, prosecution and the deceased.

Gobind is representing Beng Hock’s brother, Meng Kee, who is appealing against the coroner’s court open verdict decision on the death of the late DAP political aide.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Abazafree Mohd Abbas agreed with Gobind on the matter.

Balia Yusof also fixed Jan 9 for case management of the appeal and cautioned parties to ensure they personally appeared before the deputy registrar on that date, instead of assigning their juniors to attend the case management to avoid similar excuses being made before the Court of Appeal panel.

He was presiding on the panel with Court of Appeal judges Datuk Rohana Yusuf and Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

Meanwhile, Balia Yusof, who questioned whether the Court of Appeal had the jurisdiction to hear this appeal, also directed the parties in the appeal to prepare their respective written submissions on this jurisdictional issue.

Teoh, the political secretary to Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, Selangor, on July 16, 2009, after giving a statement at the office of the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission located on the 14th floor of the same building. He was 30 years old then.

On Jan 5, 2010, the coroner, Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict that Teoh’s death was not due to suicide nor homicide and found no third party involvement either, in the death.

On July 21, 2011, a Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by Federal Court Judge Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen (now retired) established Teoh’s death as suicide.

Meng Kee subsequently, filed an application under section 323 of the Criminal Procedure Code at the High Court on Sept 30, 2011 to have the coroner’s decision reviewed.

The High Court in Shah Alam rejected Meng Kee’s review application on Dec 1, 2011.

On Feb 2, last year, Meng Kee obtained leave from the Court of Appeal to appeal against the decision of the High Court.

Outside the court, Gobind told reporters that the missing documents were needed as they formed part of his submission in the appeal.

“I won’t say that there is a substantial delay (on the appeal), I would say the process of compiling the documents have not been easy because of the voluminous nature of the documents. To be fair to the court, they have also put in effort to produce the record. They are 17 volumes of record and they have compiled the bulk of it but we need to get the rest of the documents,” he said. — Bernama