Published October 22, 2009

Opposition aide's death homicide? 'Most probably'

By S JAYASANKARAN
IN KUALA LUMPUR

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THE Kuala Lumpur coroner's court was dealt a bombshell yesterday when a renowned Thai pathologist testified that there was 'an 80 per cent probability' that oppositionist Teoh Beng Hock's death was a homicide.

Mr Teoh, an aide to an opposition lawmaker in Selangor, died on July 16 in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in what the authorities say was a case of suicide. His body was found sprawled on a fifth floor landing outside the Selangor offices of the MACC.

The case has become something of a cause celebre in Malaysia because Mr Teoh was a witness and not a suspect in a corruption investigation. Moreover, he had been due to be married on the day of his death.

Under cross-examination by a lawyer from the Selangor state government, Pornthip Rojanasunand testified that some of the injuries suffered by Mr Teoh were before his fall. She also said that he was alive when he fell but was unconscious judging from the lack of injuries to his wrists and ankles. The pathologist had been hired by the Selangor state government as an expert witness.

Elaborating, Dr Pornthip, who is widely known in Thailand as the 'Defender of the Dead', said that if Mr Teoh had been conscious, there would have been 'reaction wounds' as he sought to instinctively protect himself against the impact.

The Thai pathologist also said that the dead person's external injuries suggested that he had been strangled and had also suffered anal penetration before his fall. Thus he could have passed out from the strangulation or from the pain in his anal region.

The damaging testimony from a forensic expert who shot to prominence from her work in identifying the 2004 tsunami victims and, more recently, in her autopsy of Hollywood star David Carradine, contradicts that of two Malaysian pathologists who have suggested that it was suicide. It is also bound to focus scrutiny on the methods used by the MACC.

The 54-year-old pathologist said that not all of Mr Teoh's injuries were consistent with a fall. The anal injury, she said, 'I have never seen in any case from a fall from a height'.

Dr Pornthip is also the director-general of Thailand's Central Institute of Forensic Science.

Some livid stripes on Mr Teoh's upper thighs were also inconsistent with a fall. Dr Pornthip suggested they were the result of a beating with a stick.

She added that if she had carried out the autopsy on Mr Teoh, she would have cut open the thighs just under the skin to check for internal bleeding in order to confirm her theory.

She also pointed out several 'round' bruises on Mr Teoh's neck, which could mean 'manual strangulation' by fingers.

The skull fracture on Mr Teoh's head, she said, was not typical of an injury from a fall but more compatible with the result of blunt force applied directly to the skull.

'I found contusion on fracture line, so the fracture could be caused by blunt force injury directly on the skull,' she said, explaining why she disagreed with the explanation of the Malaysian doctors

The Malaysian doctors who performed Mr Teoh's autopsy had previously explained that the head injury could have been caused by the momentum of the landing.

'For transfer of force, (you) only find ring fracture at the base of the skull along (the) spinal column, not a linear fracture and not a cervical spine fracture,' Dr Pornthip added. The inquest continues.