The Teoh Beng Hock Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) will not release lawyers’ submissions now pending its report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to prevent a trial by media.
The RCI investigating Teoh’s high-profile death is to submit its report to the King by June 25, almost two years after the DAP political aide mysteriously fell to his death outside the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office in ShahAlam.
“We want to avoid the media picking perhaps juicy parts and not getting the gist of it,” said MACC lawyer Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah at a joint press conference today with Bar Council lawyer Christopher Leong, conducting officer Amarjeet Singh and RCI secretary Datuk Saripuddin Kasim.
“It’s to avoid a trial by media until a proper decision is made,” added Shafee.
Saripuddin said it was a unanimous decision made at a lawyers’ meeting with the commissioners earlier today.
The MACC has argued that Teoh committed suicide to protect the party and his boss, Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, from being exposed as corrupt.
A foreign forensic psychiatrist called by the Bar Council, however, has said Teoh was not suicidal when he entered the custody of the MACC.
Dr Paul Mullen also said Teoh’s statement to the MACC did not clearly implicate anyone and pointed out that the DAP aide’s experience in the MACC office would generally not lead to a suicide.
“If submissions are released now, it’s almost amounting to releasing a portion of what may be contents of the report,” said Shafee today.
The prominent lawyer added that it was the prerogative of the King to make the RCI report public.
“The Bar is of the view that the report, whenever done, it ought to be made public together with the submissions of the parties,” said Leong, who is also the Bar Council vice-president.
The Bar Council, the MACC and the conducting officers from the Attorney-General’s Chambers filed their written submissions last week.
The RCI, which is chaired by sitting Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong, was tasked to unravel the mysterious circumstances behind Teoh’s death and to look into MACC’s investigation methods.
Teoh, 30, was found dead on July 16, 2009 on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam, after being questioned overnight by graftbusters at their then-Selangor headquarters on the 14th floor of the same building.
Public outrage forced Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to form the RCI after a coroner’s inquest into Teoh’s death delivered an open verdict, ruling out suicide and homicide.
