By courtesy of http://www.malaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/35930-last-macc-man-to-see-teoh-alive-is-identified
SHAH ALAM, Aug 24 — The last man to see DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock alive was graft buster Raymond Nion son of John Timban, a Selangor MACC man told the coroner's court today.
The investigating officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) Selangor branch, Mohd Anuar Ismail, is the 16th person to step into the witness stand in the ongoing inquiry to learn how Teoh died.
Mohd Anuar told the coroner's court he only learned later that Raymond supposedly saw Teoh sleeping on a sofa in the MACC office on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam here as he himself was sleeping in a different room at the same time.
He added that another fellow officer, Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus, was the last to speak to Teoh.
"After the incident of Mr Teoh Beng Hock's death, I was informed that at about 5am, he had called Mr Ashraf to ask for a drink and at about 6am, an officer named Mr Raymond had seen Mr Teoh Beng Hock still sleeping on a sofa," the MACC IO replied when quizzed by lawyer Tan Hock Chuan.
Tan is a former deputy public prosecutor who was asked by the Attorney-General to help the coroner in the inquest.
Mohd Anuar also said Teoh, who was found dead on a 5th-floor landing at the MACC Selangor branch on July 16, had been questioned overnight as the main witness into claims that Selangor DAP assemblymen were misusing state funds.
The soft-spoken MACC IO denied that any "force" or "threats" had been used on Teoh during the interrogation.
He noted that two officers who had interviewed Teoh, Arman Alies and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus, had later told him Teoh did not answer several questions on certain "documents" and his laptop but the officer who recorded the deceased's statement, Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim, said there were "no problems"with Teoh.
Mohd Anuar also told the coroner that he had found Teoh's bag, a dark-coloured slingbag, left behind on a sofa in the MACC Selangor office when he finally woke up at 8.30am on July 16, after Teoh was said to have been "released" from questioning.
He said he remembered seeing Teoh carry in the bag when he entered the building the previous day at about 6-plus in the evening but failed to identify the bag when pressed by Tan, who referred him to a photograph.
He had checked with several MACC workers, from fellow investigators including the head of the investigations unit, Hairul Idham Hamzah to the telephone operator to see if Teoh was still in the building, but failed to get a positive answer.
Mohd Anuar told the coroner his next sight of Teoh was after the political aide's death, when he had received an emergency phone call from fellow officer, assistant enforcer Mohd Redzuan Mohamad, who told to go down to the 5th-floor "immediately".
The IO had previously testified that he had been called back to the MACC office by Hairul Idham about midnight on July 16 after leaving at 8.30pm the day before.
However, he himself was not involved directly in the interrogation process despite being the IO, he said in reply to Tan's pointed remark, explaining that officers carried out their jobs based on orders given from a senior officer.
He told the inquest that he had spent most of the hours between midnight and 9am sleeping: first on a sofa, then moving to the surau next to the toilet until about 3am when he was woken up by Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim who told him he had finished recording Teoh's statements.
He instructed Mohd Nadzri to tell Teoh to go home and return the next day to hand over certain "documents".
At 5am, Mohd Anuar moved to the main visitor's room in the front of the office, where he slept with an MACC security guard, Mohammed Khairuddin Denan until 8.30am.
Yet, Mohd Anuar told the court he did not contact Teoh the next morning to follow-up on the "documents" related to the MACC's investigations on the abuse of state funds when Tan probed.
Tan: As the IO, if someone does not bring the documents, do you call up the next day to ask him to bring the documents? Did you telephone Mr Teoh?
Mohd Anuar: No.
Tan: Did you ask any other officer to telephone Mr Teoh?
Mohd Anuar: No.
Tan's eyebrows shot all the way to his hairline when he learnt that Mohd Anuar had not gone home from July 16 until July 18.
The latter's punch card showed he last clocked in on July 15 at 8.22am without ever clocking out, even though he admitted he had left the building at 8.30pm the same day to go home.
Tan: Is it a normal thing for the MACC?
Mohd Anuar: It's a normal thing.
The MACC's legal affairs director, Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, today offered again to supply the coroner with the recorded statement taken from Teoh before his death, which he said may be relevant to show his mental state.
But lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, acting for Teoh's family, pointed out that the recorded statement was only an "interpretation" from the MACC and could not be said to fully "reflect" Teoh's mind when he was no longer alive to prove the truth of the recording.
Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, the lawyer for the Selangor government, was equally cautious for the coroner to accept wholeheartedly the recorded statement.
"We have to study the statement first as we have just received it today. Our main concern is whether it is inded Teoh's statement," he told The Malaysian Insider.
Speaking to reporters after the inquest, Abdul Razak admitted the statement was not a video or audio recording but merely a written record of Teoh's conversation with the MACC officers.
Magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas, who is acting as coroner, noted that the recording may still show relevance. He said he would decide tomorrow.
COMMENTS
Why should Teoh be considered to be discharged by MACC when his hand phone and slingbag was still in the building???
As the slingbag was allegedly found at 8:30am, it means Teoh was dead between 6am and 8:30am on July 16, 2009. The story that Teoh was sleeping on sofa in MACC is very hard to believe. As this is first in record that a witness is allowed to sleep in MACC building! Secondly, it is illogical that for MACC to say that night interrogation does not interfere with the work of the witness when the IO himself slept through the night.
The recorded statement of Teoh could be doctored as MACC had the specimen of the signature of Teoh. The specialists may be required to identify the signature on the recorded statement. Are all the pages signed by Teoh? If the only last page is signed, there is possibility to insert more pages which Teoh did not utter at all.
Now Tan Boon Wah Kajang Municipal Councillor was called to MACC almost the same time as Teoh. Why Teoh could be "discharged" at 3:45am while Tan was released in the afternoon after signing the recorded statement???
Archive News http://www.thenutgraph.com/tan-boon-wah-sues-macc-for-illegal-detention
Tan Boon Wah sues MACC for illegal detention
KUALA LUMPUR, 22 July 2009: Kajang Municipal Councillor Tan Boon Wah today sued the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and two others for allegedly detaining and interrogating him in an unlawful manner last week.
Tan, 39, filed his writ of summons through Messrs Karpal Singh & Co at the registration office of the High Court Appellate and Special Powers Division here at 12:30 pm.
In his writ of summons, Tan, as the plaintiff, named MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan, Assistant Superintendent Mohammad Hassan Zulkifli, and the MACC as the three defendants.
In his supporting affidavit, the plaintiff claimed that on 15 July, he was taken out of his house by officers of the third defendant to the MACC headquarters in Shah Alam for interrogation at 8:30 pm.
"I was only released at 1:35 pm on the following day, 16 July. This was after I was given an order for interrogation as a witness on 20 July at 10am," said the plaintiff in his affidavit.
"I had been detained unlawfully by the MACC officers. I had stated that I could not, from the legal aspect, be interrogated after government office hours, that is, from 8:30am until 5pm daily, as provided under Section 30(1)(a) of the MACC Act," the plaintiff said.
Subsequently, the plaintiff claimed the move was an unlawful detention, which resulted in him suffering losses and damages.
Through the writ of summons, the plaintiff demanded a court declaration that the defendants, who were investigating under Section 30(1)(a) of the MACC Act 2009, could only record statements from the plaintiff as a witness during office hours only, that is from 8:30am until 5:30pm.
The plaintiff also demanded a declaration order that all the defendants had acted against the provision of Section 30 (3)(a) of the Act, damages for unlawful detention, costs and other reliefs from the court.
Tan is one of several people who were called up by the MACC to give statements in investigations on alleged misappropriation of the Selangor state allocation.
A political aide to one of the Selangor state executive councillors, Teoh Beng Hock, who was called up for interrogation by the MACC at its headquarters on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam, was found dead on the fifth floor of the building on 16 July. — Bernama
Comments
Nicholas Aw Posted: 23 Jul 09 : 1.48PM
Good for you Tan Boon Wah. The MACC should be taught a lesson. I don't deny that there are some very dedicated officers but generally the MACC is a big bully legally sanctioned by the BN government.
They investigate selectively [...] and they act as if they are God. They allow people like Lingam, Khir Toyo and Zakaria Darus to walk about freely; the latter in the next world, and yet go all out to investigate Teoh Beng Hock, Tan Boon Wah and other opposition politicians.
COMMENTS
MACC is believed to be reporting directly to Najib PM Office and not to the Parliament. There is no check and balance in MACC. All MACC Officers must declare their assets online. Before these officers are qualified to investigate corruption cases, they themselves must be legally clean and transparent.
"Before you judge others, remove the plank from your own eyes then you may be able to remove the speck from other people's eyes." If these MACC Officers are corrupted themselves, then how could they remove the 'speck' from the public and private sectors???
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