Beng Hock might have been strangled prior to death
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
Sungai Buloh hospital chief pathologist Dr. Shahidan Md. Noor today agreed with lawyers Gobind Singh Deo and Malik Imtiaz Sarwar that it is possible that that neck injuries sustained by Teoh Beng Hock might have been caused by strangulation.
He, however, affirmed in court that it was not likely that the strangulation killed him and that his fall was the cause of death.
“He (Dr. Shahidan) agreed that the injuries to the front part of the neck might have not been connected to the injuries of the fall. It’s open to argue that it could be a pre-fall injury,” said Malik, who is the lawyer for the Selangor state government.
Teoh, a Selangor government political secretary, was found dead last July 16 at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Selangor office after an overnight interrogation.
Malik explained to reporters that the injuries to the throat muscle could have been caused by choking or strangulation.
He said that there were three main injuries to the neck, and that the cause of the first two injuries were different from the third injury, which affected the spinal area.
“It has now been accepted that the first two injuries to the neck muscles were separate injuries than the deeper muscle.”
Earlier in the coroner’s court, counsel for Teoh’s family Gobind Singh Deo went all out to establish doubt over the findings of the first post-mortem report by Dr Khairul Azman Hj Ibrahim and Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar.
The fiery lawyer argued that the report was “insufficient” as no tests were done to examine the marks around the neck, something which should have been “standard procedure” in cases of custodial death.
