KUALA LUMPUR – The High Court here has ruled in favour of Teoh Beng Hock’s family’s judicial review application, giving police six months to complete their investigation into the DAP aide’s death over a decade ago.
The family had sought a court order to compel police to carry out a complete investigation into the 30-year-old’s death after falling from the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office where he was being questioned.
In delivering his judgement today, justice Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh made a mandamus order to compel the police to complete its probe within six months from today, ruling that there had been an “inordinate delay” in the investigation thus far.
Teoh, who was at that time a political aide to Selangor executive councilor and DAP’s Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, shortly after being questioned by MACC.
His body was found on the fifth-floor roof service area of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, below the Selangor MACC office on the 14th floor where he was questioned.
During court proceedings today, the judge highlighted that a mandamus order has been established to be an appropriate remedy for instances when it has been shown that police have not executed “something which is obviously their duty to do”.
“The applicants (Beng Hock’s father Teoh Leong Hwee and mother Teng Shuw Hoi) have no intention to frustrate (police) investigations – it is not in their interest to do so.
“The interest of the applicants, the public and more importantly justice, is best served by the conclusion and completion of police investigations (into Beng Hock’s death),” Ahmad Farid said.
He added that while the offence under investigation – Beng Hock’s alleged wrongful confinement – is not “rocket science”, there is no evidence before the court to suggest that investigation delays were due to the respondents’ bad faith or malice.
As such, the judge declined to make any findings on the allegations of mala fide brought by the applications against the respondents, namely the Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director, the Royal Malaysia Police, the government and the inspector-general of police.
“However, considering that Section 342 of the Penal Code for wrongful imprisonment is not a complicated offence, one can be forgiven in concluding that investigations were not conducted in a fast and furious manner.”
For the record, Beng Hock’s family had previously called for his death to be investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder instead of wrongful imprisonment, with his sister Teoh Lee Lan claiming that the use of Section 342 of the Penal Code is “unreasonable and unacceptable”.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference after the verdict, lawyer Ramkarpal Singh, representing Beng Hock’s family, cautioned that police’s failure to abide by the court order could result in contempt of court, which is legally punishable by a fine or imprisonment term.
He also said that while the family had initially requested for the court to compel the investigation to be completed within one month, they welcome today’s decision as a “positive development” in the long drawn out process of seeking justice for Beng Hock.
The High Court had in June 2022 granted the family leave to file an application for judicial review, six months after the application was filed.
A royal commission of inquiry in 2011 determined that Beng Hock had been driven to suicide by MACC’s aggressive questioning.
However, in 2014, a three-member Court of Appeal bench ruled that Beng Hock’s death was caused by multiple injuries from a fall from a building due to unlawful acts of a person or persons unknown, including MACC officers, who had questioned him overnight before he was found dead.
The High Court had also recorded an out-of-court settlement in 2015, which saw the family awarded RM600,000 in damages for negligence. – November 21, 2022