Teoh’s family wants body exhumed for second autopsy
The family of Teoh Beng Hock wants his body to be exhumed so a second post-mortem can be carried out by renowned Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand.
Sources close to the family told The Malaysian Insider that an official announcement will be made by the family later today.
Lawyers representing them at the inquest into whether there was foul play involved in his death have been instructed to make an application to the coroner’s court to allow for the body to be exhumed.
Dr Pornthip, who testified at the inquest on Wednesday, caused a stir when she said there was a 80 per cent chance Teoh’s death was a homicide which is contrary to earlier findings by pathologists from local hospitals and the police who attributed the death to suicide.
She said Teoh’s injuries showed he could have been strangled and that he sustained anal penetration before he fell to his death on July 16.
Dr Pornthip, who was hired by the Selangor state government, based her testimony on the earlier post-mortem report, pictures and other evidence.
Following Teoh’s death, his distraught Buddhist family was reluctant to subject his body to another post-mortem and wanted him to be buried as soon as possible. Their wishes were respected.
However, following her testimony the family, who has always disputed the findings that Teoh killed himself, now wants the second post-mortem to be carried out.
Teoh was hauled up for questioning by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on July 15 to help investigations into claims of misuse of state allocations by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state lawmakers.
According to MACC, Teoh was only a witness in the case and had gone to the Selangor MACC headquarters on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam voluntarily.
The body of the former political secretary to DAP’s Ean Yong Hian Wah was found on a 5th-floor landing at the building the following afternoon.
But MACC maintains he was released from their custody earlier that morning.
Dr Pornthip said during the testimony that she would like an opportunity to carry out her own autopsy on Teoh but magistrate Azmil Muntapha Abas, who is acting as coroner in the inquest, indicated that it may be too late to do so at this stage.
