No thorough probe on Beng Hock’s letter

PUTRAJAYA: There was no thorough investigation to establish that the note found in DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock's bag was authored by him and was a suicide note, the Court of Appeal was told today.
There were three areas of contention before the three-member panel of judges: the evidence on the authorship of the note was doubtful, there was a break in the chain of evidence, and no independent forensic evidence to support the suicide theory.
Beng Hock, 30, was found sprawled on the fifth floor landing of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam where the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters was formerly located on the morning of July 16, 2009.
The panel, chaired by Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, questioned deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Abazafree Mohd Abbas on the lack of investigation into the note.
Mohamad Abazafree agreed with the judges that there was no thorough investigation to establish the note as primary evidence.
Also on the panel are Datuk Mah Weng Kwai and Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer.
Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, who is representing Teoh Meng Kee, the brother of Beng Hock, said the appellant relied heavily on pathologist Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanusunan's statement of pre-fall injuries, which may have caused Beng Hock to be unconscious or semi-conscious at the time he fell.
"That is how (Beng Hock) exited the 14th floor of the MACC offices and fell to the ground of the 5th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.
"We submit that the evidence of Porntip was corroborated and submitted in full by Dr Shahidan Md Noor, who in cross-examination admitted that the neck injuries were pre-fall injuries," he told reporters after the hearing.
However, Gobind said this part of the evidence is not in the record of the appeal.
The Court of Appeal has ordered for the submission of a complete record with reference to the notes of proceedings of the lower courts within two week before fixing the date for decision.
Beng Hock's family is appealing against the Jan 5, 2010 decision of the Coroner's Court, which returned an open verdict that Beng Hock's death was not due to suicide or homicide, and also found no third party involvement in the death.