LEGAL representatives of Teoh Beng Hock have met with Attorney-General Tommy Thomas on the reopening of investigations over the political aide’s death while under the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2009.

“The investigation will recommence,” said family lawyer Ramkarpal Singh.

“We have spoken with the AG. We have intimated and written to him explaining how important (it is) for investigations be re-opened,” he told a forum at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall yesterday to mark the ninth anniversary of Teoh’s death.

Following the re-opening of investigations into the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said last month that cabinet agreed to a fresh probe into Teoh’s death, which family members claim was due to foul play.

Lim, however, said Thomas would need to be consulted on how to proceed with the case. 

Ramkarpal, who is Bukit Gelugor MP, said he and his sister Sangeet Kaur Deo would be representing the family.

Teoh’s family were previously represented by Ramkarpal’s father, DAP stalwart Karpal Singh, before his death in 2014, as well as his brother, Gobind Singh Deo, before the latter’s appointment as a minister two months ago.

Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor of MACC office after being questioned for about 11 hours as a witness in a case of alleged misappropriation of allocations for several assemblymen.

He was political secretary to former state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah.

In 2001, a royal commission of inquiry concluded that Teoh was not murdered but had committed suicide due to the “aggressive interrogation” tactics by three MACC officers. Teoh’s family rejected the findings and insisted he was murdered.

At last night’s forum, Ramkarpal read out the Hamid Sultan judgment in the Court of Appeal’s decision in 2014 which overturned the previous high court ruling in 2011 that upheld a coroner’s testimony that Teoh’s death was neither a suicide nor homicide.

“I do not see how a legal system based on the rule of law as well as our country being a signatory to the (United Nations) Human Rights Convention will permit a witness being oppressed in the manner that has been done to the deceased, Teoh Beng Hock.

“Such conduct will also be clearly in breach of several provisions of the federal constitution.”

Also present at the forum were Universiti Malaya law lecturer Azmi Sharom, Teoh’s younger sister, Lee Lan, and Sangeet.

Ramkarpal said the new government would press ahead with judicial reform, pledged as part of its campaign promise. 

Earlier, Azmi called for the new government to ratify the UN Convention against Torture.

He also called for a revival of the proposal for a police oversight committee, the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

“It is absolutely, absolutely necessary. You cannot say the police will investigate themselves. That’s like telling my students, ‘you go mark your own exams’.

“We cannot trust the police to take care of themselves. We need an independent body to watch them because otherwise they will continue because they feel they are invulnerable.”

He added that Teoh’s death was the result of an “evil and desperate” Barisan Nasional government fresh out of the 2008 general election, where the coalition lost two-thirds of majority in Parliament along with five states. – July 16, 2018.