‘Submissions won’t be made public for now’
By Irdiani Mohd Salleh, NST
KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating the death of Teoh Beng Hock has decided not to make public the written submissions by the three parties until its report is submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Commission secretary Datuk Saripuddin Kasim said the decision was made after a meeting between the commissioners and the lead counsel for the Bar Council, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the conducting officers yesterday morning.
He said the commission was scheduled to submit the report on June 24.
On whether the report on the outcome of the investigation would be made public, Saripuddin said that would be decided by the king.
“The commission is answerable to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and it is his prerogative whether to make the report public.”
He said the commissioners would have to examine about 30,000 pages of documents including more than 20,000 pages of verbatim reports of the inquiry proceedings, written submissions and appendix.
Saripuddin said the commissioners, led by Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen, were now studying the various documents.
Also present at the press conference yesterday were MACC counsel Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, conducting officer Amarjeet Singh and Christopher Leong who is representing the Bar Council.
Leong told reporters that the Bar Council would make an application to the commission to make the report public.
Shafee said the parties agreed not to release the written submissions to the public in order to avoid a trial by media.
Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor corridor of Plaza Masalam on July 16, 2009, a day after he was taken in for questioning by the MACC over the alleged misappropriation of state funds.
At that time, Teoh was a political aide to Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah.
The other commissioners are former Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, former Court of Appeal judge Datuk T.S. Nathan, a forensic pathologist consultant at Penang Hospital Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh and Dean of the Medical Faculty, Cyberjaya University College of Medical Science Professor Dr Mohamed Hatta Shaharom.
The inquiry into Teoh’s death began on Feb 14 and ended on May 10. It saw 70 witnesses giving evidence.
