Coroner gives nod for second post-mortem

2009/11/05

By Rita Jong ritajo@nst.com.my

SHAH ALAM: Political aide Teoh Beng Hock's body will be exhumed for a second postmortem.

Coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas yesterday granted an application by Teoh's family to exhume the body following independent Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan's evidence in court last month that Teoh's case was 80 per cent homicide.

Counsel Gobind Singh Deo, who is representing the family, said that Dr Pornthip's testimony was crucial to the inquest to determine the circumstances leading to Teoh's death.

"The court has the power under the Criminal Procedure Code to order that his body be exhumed for a second autopsy," said Gobind.

"Under this law, the medical officer who will conduct the post-mortem must be registered with the Medical Qualifying Board and be employed with a medical facility in the country."

Dr Pornthip, however, was not registered as a medical practitioner in Malaysia.

"Teoh's family has agreed to a medical officer conducting the post-mortem but I urge the court to allow Dr Pornthip to be present and direct certain investigations (to prove her findings)," he said.

"She will also prepare a report based on her observations and will be recalled to testify in the inquest."

Gobind also said he had no objections to the two pathologists who had conducted the first post-mortem being present.

(Teoh's first autopsy was conducted by Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim of Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital and Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar of University Malaya Medical Centre).

"The second post-mortem is to see that justice is done. We want to know what happened to Teoh," Gobind said, adding that Dr Pornthip will be in the country on Nov 14 (for the post-mortem).

Counsel Tan Hock Chuan, who is appointed by the Attorney-General's Chambers to assist in the inquest, and DPP Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, who is appearing for the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, did not object to the application.

Tan said Teoh's family should have a choice on the medical officer to conduct the post-mortem.

Razak, however, said Dr Pornthip was not a qualified doctor in Malaysia to conduct the autopsy.

"Under the Medical Act, there are 250 universities which are recognised but it doesn't include the university (Mahidol University in Thailand) that Dr Pornthip had received her qualifications from," he said.

"Our law does not recognise her position."

He said he did not object to the application since MACC was allowed to have its expert present during the post-mortem.

Azmil granted the application to exhume the body for a second post-mortem to be conducted by a medical officer and for Dr Pornthip to be present.

He fixed Monday for counsel to return to court with details on the proposed names of the medical officers for the respective parties and to sort out when and where the postmortem should be held.

Teoh's family filed the application to exhume the body on Oct 27 following Dr Pornthip's testimony that there was an 80 per cent chance that Teoh's death was the result of homicide. Her evidence contradicted the findings of the two pathologists who had conducted the first post-mortem.

Dr Pornthip said she found injury marks on Teoh, which suggested that there was manual strangulation and that he was unconscious when he fell.

She also testified that there were pre-fall injuries at the anal region and the back of his right thigh.

Dr Pornthip was called in as an independent expert witness by the Selangor government.

She, however, had said her findings were only based on photographs, X-rays and the post-mortem report sent to her.

She also said that she was ready to conduct a post-mortem herself to prove her findings.

Teoh's body was buried at the Nirwana Memorial Park in Semenyih on July 20.