Teoh’s suicide: MACC suspends three officers
The three were named by the Royal Commission of Inquiry as driving Teoh Beng Hock to commit suicide.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission today suspended three officers identified by the Royal Commission of Inquiry as being indirectly responsible for Teoh Beng Hock’s death.
The suspension is pending an outcome an internal probe into their actions.
“Pending the outcome of the internal investigation, all three relevant officers have been suspended or exluded from any investigative operations,” said a MACC statement today.
The three suspended officers are Negeri Sembilan MACC director (then Selangor MACC deputy director) Hishamuddin Hashim and two enforcement officers Mohd Anuar Ismail (then the investigating officer) and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus. They were alleged to have driven Teoh to his death.
MACC said that it will not protect any of its officers that had broken the law.
“We want to stress that we will not tolerate or protect any of our officers who are found to be guilty of any criminal offence or breaching any code of conduct,” said MACC.
The decision followed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz’s request to the police to investigate the three officers.
“We would also give our full cooperation to the police so that investigations would be independent and transparent.”
A special investigative team — led by deputy chief commissioner (management and professionalism) Zakaria Jaffar — will look into the claims made against the three officers, and the results would be submitted in a report.
The results would then be tabled to the MACC Complaints Committee that consists of four independent individuals, and is chaired by former Appeals Court judge Mohd Noor Abdullah, added MACC in its statement.
MACC added that it viewed with seriousness the recommendations of the RCI which had released its report on July 21.
