Why interrogate Teoh for so long?
By Teoh El Sen, Free Malaysia Today
KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officer today asked why he had taken almost two hours to interrogate Teoh Beng Hock when the scope of his investigation was confined to just four documents.
James Foong, the chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating Teoh’s death, asked assistant enforcement officer Arman Alies: “You were just ordered by your superior to check through four documents, why did that take so long?”
Arman, 35, said that it was because he and Teoh had to go through all the documents contained in four large folders and not just the four invoices.
Foong then asked Arman if he had asked Teoh about matters other than the four invoices he was ordered to check through with his colleague Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus.
“Yes, I asked about other documents,” said Arman.
“So Arman, you did more than what (your superior) Hairul (Ilham Hamzah) tasked you to do, which is to check those four documents. Why did you exceed your powers?” asked Foong.
Later on, Foong again queried if anything else had happened as he was unconvinced that the questioning could last two hours.
“Why did you take so long for such a small thing, it’s just claims and signatures. Since you said all the documents were suspect, then to tag all these could just take half an hour. Was there anything else that happened?”
Close perusal of documents
When questioned by conducting officer Awang Armadajaya Pengiran Mahmud, Arman then defended himself.
Awang: Like the chairman asked, why did it take two hours?
Arman: It’s actually not two hours, just one hour plus.
Awang: Okay then, but why did it take so long?
Arman: I just asked him (Teoh) and he just looked through the documents again and again. All the four files, he went through the documents one by one.
Awang: And he took one and a half hours for that?
Arman: Yes, almost.
Awang: When you left the MACC office, did you think about the welfare of Teoh or you just did not care at all?
Arman: After 11.50pm (when the questioning ended) I did not see him anymore. I can’t say I didn’t care, that’s too harsh. My official duty with him was over. I believed that the investigating officer should be taking over from me.
Was it a fishing trip?
Arman was also asked by the commission on what basis he had found documents taken from Teoh’s laptop to be suspicious.
