KUALA LUMPUR – The family members of Teoh Beng Hock and their supporters will be bringing their grouses to the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya next week, after their repeated pleas to reopen investigations into the former DAP political aide’s death went unanswered.
The Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement said they will gather outside the Prime Minister’s Office at Putra Perdana, Putrajaya, at 3pm on December 13, in hope of being granted a meeting with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“In the past year, the association and Teoh’s family have written to the prime minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. We engaged with cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, MPs and political secretaries about our demand to set up a new investigation team.
“But, the unity government has not given a concrete response to our demand,” association chairman Ng Yap Hwa said in a statement today.
He also claimed that during the 14th anniversary memorial of Teoh’s passing in July this year, “deputy ministers” had promised to arrange for the Teoh family to meet with Anwar.
“Sadly, this (meeting with Anwar) did not materialise after five months,” Ng added.
Teoh’s body was found on the fifth floor landing of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on the morning of July 16, 2009, after being questioned overnight by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers at their office located on the 14th floor of the building.
At the time of his death, Teoh was the political aide to the then Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was also DAP’s Seri Kembangan assemblyman.
In 2011, a royal commission of inquiry established to investigate Teoh’s death concluded that he had been driven to commit suicide due to the aggressive nature of the MACC’s questioning.
The appellate court in 2014 then ruled that Teoh’s death was caused by the act of “a person or persons unknown,” including officers from the anti-graft agency who grilled him before he was found dead.
On June 16 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court granted Teoh’s parents – father Teoh Leong Hwee and mother Teng Shuw Hoi – leave to initiate judicial review proceedings to compel the Royal Malaysia Police to complete investigations into their son’s death. – December 7, 2023