Teoh was found dead while being investigated by MACC officers in 2009. While a coroner’s inquest in 2011 delivered an open verdict, the Court of Appeal set it aside and ruled the death was caused by multiple injuries as a result of unlawful acts by unknown persons – which included MACC officers.
Last November, the Kuala Lumpur High Court instructed the authorities to probe Teoh’s death again, with Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director Shuhaily Zain stating on Tuesday that the investigation was almost complete.
However, Shuhaily said the police have had limited resources to probe the case. Stating that there were several witnesses the police were unable to interview again, Shuhaily also claimed that Teoh’s family had not provided their full cooperation.
In a statement, TBH-ADA chairman Ng Yap Hwa said Shuhaily’s statement was unconvincing and lacked credibility, adding that the CID chief should not have shifted the blame for the lack of progress onto Teoh’s family.
“Such politician-like excuses demonstrate the police’s lack of professional competence in handling the case,” said Ng.
“Our association has repeatedly submitted the Court of Appeal’s judgment to police investigators, emphasising that the judgment stated that ‘one or more unknown persons, including MACC officers, caused his death’.
“I submitted a list of 34 MACC officials involved in Teoh’s 2009 death to the police in February. The police must now disclose which of these MACC officers could not be located or refused to cooperate with the investigation.”
In July 2009, Teoh, who was then the political aide to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, hours after he had gone for questioning at the 14th floor of MACC’s Selangor headquarters.
In the statement, Ng also claimed that the police’s refusal to rigorously investigate MACC is likely a result of “mutual protection” among officials and law enforcement agencies.
“The police’s attitude shows that they never seriously studied the Court of Appeal’s judgment, disobeying Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s promise to the Teoh family,” said Ng.
Last August, Anwar rejected a request by Teoh’s family to invite international criminal investigation experts to Malaysia to conduct a fair, professional and transparent investigation into the case, stating that Malaysian police were capable of probing the matter.
Ng today repeated the call for a probe into Teoh’s death to be led by international experts, stating that Anwar’s directive to let the police investigate the matter has “failed to uncover the truth or bring the culprits to justice”.
He said that despite Teoh’s death occurring in a protected area in the Selangor MACC headquarters with injuries on his neck sustained before his fall, and the Court of Appeal identifying MACC officials as potential suspects in his death, the police had focussed their investigation on Teoh’s siblings.
Ng said Teoh’s brother was hundreds of kilometres away from the Selangor MACC headquarters at the time of Teoh’s death and his sister was 20km away.
“This defies all logic and is utterly absurd!” said Ng.