Investigating Officer: Beng Hock’s letter not a suicide note

(Malaysia Chronicle) – MACC chief counsel Abdul Razak Musa, who made a fool of himself and his agency during his interrogation of forensic expert Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, did it again on Thursday when he insisted on insinuating a letter retrieved from Selangor political aide Teoh Beng Hock’s bag as an “alleged suicide note”.

This despite the fact that police investigating officer ASP Ahmad Nazri Ismail had told the court early on that the letter was not a suicide note.

Ahmad had said the letter did not satisfy the usual requirements of a suicide note. He said he had checked with an expert – a Dr Badiaah Yahya from Hospital Permai, Johor – and found that a person who commits suicide would usually pen a note giving reasons why he chose to end his life.

This was not apparent in the letter retrieved from Beng Hock’s bag, Ahmad said.

However, MACC’s Abdul Razak Musa repeatedly called the undated letter “the alleged suicide note” although even the Coroner pointed out that there was no conclusive evidence to show Teoh had penned the note.

The controversial note caused public uproar after Attorney-General Gani Patail produced it out of the blue and tendered it in court as evidence some 10 months after the inquest started last year. Gani was accused of trying to douse or discredit the evidence due to be presented by Dr Pornthip, who has maintained that Teoh did not commit suicide and the case was a probable homicide.

The A-G’s department incurred further controversy when a court-appointed interpreter admitted to using Google Translate to translate the note written in Chinese to Bahasa Malaysia, casting further doubt as to its accuracy.