Comments on Teoh’s inquest Day 15: Mohd Najeib says he didn't hear any shouting that night

By courtesy of MalaysianInsider http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/36170-macc-officer-says-he-did-not-hear-fight

MACC Officer says he did not hear fight

SHAH ALAM, Aug 27 – An anti-graft officer today appeared to contradict the testimony of his colleague who said earlier that Teoh Beng Hock had an argument with Kajang Councillor Tan Boon Wah at the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office.

Assistant enforcement officer Mohd Najeib Ahmad Walad, who was at the MACC headquarters till 2.30am, said he did not hear any fight.

By courtesy of TheStar http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/27/nation/20090827142330&sec=nation

SHAH ALAM 27-8-2009: A Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) assistant enforcement officer told the Teoh Beng Hock inquest he did not hear the sound of people bickering coming from his office toilet in the wee hours of July 16.

Mohd Najeib Ahmad Walad also testified he was at the state MACC office until 2.30am on that day and added the atmosphere there had been calm.

Mohd Najeib's testimony appeared to contradict his superior officer Mohd Nasir Ismail's testimony on Wednesday.

Mohd Nasir, who is the investigating officer of the case involving Teoh, had testified his colleague Bulkini Paharudin told him the deceased had had an argument with Kajang Municipal Council councilor Tan Boon Hwa on July 16.

Mohd Nasir had told coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas that Bulkini had told him the bickering had allegedly taken place in the MACC's men's room at 2.00am that day.

When cross-examined by counsel Gobind Singh Deo, who's holding a watching brief for Teohs family, Mohd Najeib said he would have run away if he had heard an argument taking place.

Below is an account of the developments as they unfolded.

04:00pm Court adjourns to 8.30am Friday.

03:47pm: Mohd Najeib disagrees with Gobind that MACC officers work in teams to interrogate a witness. For example six to seven officers questioning one witness and the same time.

03:44pm: Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, representing MACC, objects, saying Gobind's questions are irrelevant.

03:36pm: To a question, Mohd Najeib says he did not hear any shouting or any sound of people arguing as he was leaving the office at about 2.30am.

03:20pm: Mohd Najeib says Teoh insisted on driving his own car to the MACC office with his laptop and CPU. He says his superior Mohd Anuar Ismail had earlier asked Teoh to go in the MACC vehicle.

03:10pm Gobind Singh Deo, representing Teoh's family, questions Mohd Najeib.

03:08pm: Mohd Najeib says he printed out four documents from Teoh's laptop. The four documents were marked as exhibits.

02:57pm: Mohd Najeib says Teoh had insisted on holding on to the laptop and CPU, seized by MACC, during the ride to Plaza Masaalam.

02:40pm: Mohd Najeib says he was one of the five MACC officers who met Teoh at the state secretariat building. The MACC team was investigating the state fund disbursement, he says.

02:30pm: 18th witness Mohd Najeib Ahmad Walad, 29, Selangor MACC officer, takes the stand. Tan Hock Chuan, acting for Attorney-General is questioning him.

02:27pm: Coroner's Court starts.

COMMENTS

Mohd Najeib's testimony appeared to contradict his superior officer Mohd Anuar Ismail's testimony on Wednesday."

Apparently some MACC Officers are lying under oath as how could the testimony contradicts with each other? Something very fishy must be going inside MACC premises. If the senior MACC Officer is lying under oath, he is not fit to be a MACC Officer as the public lost confidence on such officer. How could such insincere officers be trusted to do a good job for MACC?

27-8-2009 Tan denies arguing with Teoh, calls it 'fabrication'
Kajang councillor Tan Boon Wah has denied having an argument with DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock prior to the latter's death.
Source: http://malaysiakini.com/news/111543

COMMENTS
The motive of MACC is to divert the blame to Mr. Tan Boon Wah and exonerate themselves from the responsibility of Teoh's sudden death. MACC IO Mohd Anuar could have been directed to testify in a predetermined manner. But the wisdom of the public and cross-examiners must be exercised to adduce truth from the sincere MACC Officers and exposed the lies of the corrupted MACC Officers, collaborators and their fabricated stories. There are some good and conscientious MACC Officers. Leave no stones unturned in MACC who are dealing with the investigation of Teoh. Prayerfully God shall use the conscientious MACC Officers to reveal the root cause of the death of Teoh. Truth prevails and falsehood shall be exposed!

Comments by readers of Malaysiakini

Bosco Philip Anthony: The evidence given by Anuar has no value. It is hearsay evidence. Because he says," He was informed" of what happened in the toilet. This is an inquest into a death. The hearsay evidence should be discarded. Loyal Malaysian: The dead have no voice! So, Beng Hock had an argument with Tan. What are you trying to say? Still trying to hoodwink the public that Beng Hock was released from MACC custody at 3.45am? Why was his handphone still in MACC's hands 2 days after his death?

Myop101: Someone should actually ask this officer, what are they arguing about and how did he ascertain they were arguing? He should be aware, some Chinese from certain dialect clans do talk loud, sounding as though they're arguing. What more in the toilet, due to echoes, sound resonates louder. It seems like he is trying to imply that there is some sort of conspiracy going round.

Lucia: What? Is MACC now trying to shift the blame to Tan? What other devious ways are they going to try to escape from the blame of Teoh's death? Anyway, I don't believe at all that no force was used on Teoh during the interrogation!

Louis: "Asked about the MACC operating round-the-clock, Mohd Anuar explained that this was necessary because some witnesses who worked during the day would ask to have their statements recorded at night so as not to disrupt their work". That was the most hypocritical statement as far as Teoh was concerned. Who the hell in the world would subject himself to questioning for the whole night and then goes to work the next day?

REFLECTION

By courtesy of Malaysianinsider http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/36001-court-orders-probe-into-dap-mans-accounts-

Court orders probe into DAP man's accounts

SHAH ALAM, Aug 25 — Magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas, who is acting as coroner in the inquest of political aide Teoh Beng Hock, today ordered the police to probe four accounting documents found by anti-graft officers and said to be related to the cause of his death.

He also ordered the police investigating officer, ASP Ahmad Nazri Zainal, to record the statement from Selangor MACC investigator, Mohd Anuar Ismail, who was appointed to head the team.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) legal affairs director, Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, who is holding a watching brief for the national anti-graft body, asked Azmil to give the order when the inquest resumed after a one-hour lunch break.

Abdul Razak drew the coroner's attention to four documents, said to have been printed out from Teoh's laptop, which show a discrepancy in monetary claims made by Teoh's boss, first-term DAP Selangor executive councillor, Ean Yong Hian Wah.

Teoh was the political secretary to Ean Yong and responsible for overseeing the assemblyman's claims from state funds.

The coroner's court was told each state lawmaker is entitled to half a million ringgit a year from the state's central fund.

Mohd Anuar had also earlier told the coroner that Teoh was its star witness.

The 30-year-old's body was found sprawled on a 5th-floor landing outside the Selangor MACC office at Plaza Masalam here on July 16, the day he was to register his marriage to his pregnant fiancee after close to 10 hours of overnight questioning.

Lawyer Gobind Singh Deo said Ean Yong should be represented in the hearing from this point onwards because the line of questioning would be focused on his involvement into the alleged abuse of state funds.

Gobind, acting for Teoh's family, said he had spoken to Ean Yong during lunch break and the latter said he had "no problems" explaining the accounts but needed to arm himself with a lawyer in the inquest.

The inquest is postponed to tomorrow morning with the MACC officer who had recorded Teoh's last statement, Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim, to step into the witness box.

Today's inquest was a heated affair.

The day's sole witness, Mohd Anuar, a soft-spoken MACC man, visibly quaked under the boiler-room pressure of Gobind's questioning, prompting Abdul Razak to jump to his feet many times in protest.

At one point, the MACC lawyer even said the inquest had turned into a "kangaroo court".

Abdul Razak pointed out that Gobind's grilling of Mohd Anuar over the MACC's interrogation tactics was not relevant to helping the coroner learn how Teoh died.

But Gobind seemed pleased with the result of today's hearing.

Speaking to reporters after the inquest, he stressed that the pattern of Mohd Anuar's testimony from the witness box "were consistent with somebody having something to hide."

"If you look at what he said, if he had been directed not to report, he would not, despite the law requiring him to do so," Gobind added, referring to the MACC man's admission, under questioning that he had

been "ordered" by the deputy director of Selangor MACC, Hishamuddin Hashim, to wait one day before reporting Teoh's death to the police.

Mohd Anuar told the coroner's court he had received a phone call from a fellow MACC officer asking him to head straight down to the 5th-floor landing of Plaza Masalam here, which also houses the anti-corruption body's offices, where he had saw Teoh lying dead at about 2pm.

He said he alerted Hishamuddin but was instead whisked away with the Selangor MACC No.2 and the investigations unit chief to the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya without reporting the incident to the police.

The trio returned only about 5.30pm that day, after police arrived at the death scene.

"Why did you not call the police? Your man, your star witness is dead! Why didn't you lodge a police report?" Gobind pressed.

Mohd Anuar's answers — "On that day, I panicked because I saw a dead body"; "There were many people there" — raised the lawyer's ire.

"My God! What is wrong with you?" Gobind swore.

He made Mohd Anuar read out loud Section 329 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), which deals with the duty of a police officer to investigate deaths.

Mohd Anuar, a practising lawyer until 2004 when he went for training at a police college in Kuala Kubu Baru before joining the MACC as an investigator, reluctantly picked up the law book handed over by Gobind and raised his quavering voice to read:

"Every officer in charge of a police station on receiving information –

(a) that a person has committed suicide;

(b) that a person has been killed by another, or by an animal, or by

machinery, or by an accident;

(c) that a person has died under circumstances raising a reasonable

suspicion that some other person has committed an offence;

(d) that the body of a dead person has been found, and it is not known

how he came by his death; or

(e) that a person has died a sudden death; shall with the least practical delay transmit such information to the officer in charge of the police district."

Gobind echoed his last sentence, placing great stress on the words "with the least practical delay".

Throwing Mohd Anuar a photo file showing Teoh's dead body, Gobind pushed the witness to answer: "Did it not eat into your conscience?

Your main witness was lying outside your office and you sit there and tell me you didn't lodge a police report."

It appeared to be the finishing blow. In a defeated voice, Mohd Anuar said: "Ya."