‘Charge MACC officers with criminal offence’
By Teoh El Sen, FMT
PETALING JAYA: Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail should consider criminal charges instead of merely taking disciplinary action against drove Selangor political aide Teoh Beng Hock to suicide.
Lawyer representing the Teoh-family, Gobind Singh Deo, said that Abdul Gani should consider using Section 330 of the Penal Code which is the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession…”. He argued that he believes that “hurt” should encompass mental injury as well.
Abdul Gani was quoted in the local daily New Straits Times on Friday that action against three MACC officers “for their aggressive, inappropriate and (therefore) in violation of the regulations”, as indicted in the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report, is to be read with the understanding of the word “regulations”.
“If it refers to the standard operating procedure of the MACC, it then becomes a matter of discipline… Hence, the officers are to be dealt with by the disciplinary body of the Public Service Department,” he was quoted as saying. He also said:”Conducting interrogations with the intent to derive information but in the process, driving someone to commit suicide is different from doing so with the intent to make him commit suicide.”
“Although this does not mean we accept the RCI findings in any way, the report definitely allows for a criminal prosecution. The AG should look it the whole thing holistically, and he should very least consider this, or else explain why not,” Gobind told FMT.
The DAP leader argued that Section 330 was designed to protect those people who are being abused in the course of interrogations and it was normal that torture would not only be physical but also mental.
“The illustration given in the section of the law refers to the word torture. Hurt must include injury to the mind and mental distress. Isn’t that what RCI said happened to Teoh ?”
“I believe that the AG would have a case,” said Gobind.
Test case
Although there has not been a precedent, this can be a test case, he said. “If you look in a dictionary, what does the word “hurt” mean? For the word injury, its already been accepted that it includes the mind,” he said.
