Not Homicide

Read The Malay Mail's article here.

Teoh Beng Hock wasn't murdered, according to 2nd autopsy. Our pathologist Dr Shahidan Mohd Noor, who conducted a second autopsy on TBH last Nov after Thai pathologist Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan said that there was an 80% chance that TBH's death was homicide, quashed that theory at the Inquest into TBH's death this morning.

At the High Court this morning, Dr Shahidan, from Sungai Buloh hospital, said his findings from the autopsy concluded that Teoh's death was caused by a fall from a high place with the injuries sustained consistent with the result of a fall.

He also disputed Dr Pornthip's testimony that the bruises on Teoh's neck was a result of strangulation as there was no evidence of asphyxiation or that his anal injury was a penetrative wound.

The 2nd autopsy was conducted on 22 Nov 2009 at 12.45pm at the mortuary of Hospital Sungai Buloh. Other forensic pathologists present during the autopsy were Dr Porntip, Professor Dr Peter Vanezis of the UK, Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim, Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar, and Dr Rohayu Shahar Adnan.

Teoh was found dead on July 16 last year at Plaza Masalam the morning after he was interviewed for 10 hours by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), whose office is on the 14th floor of the building. The political secretary of Selangor exco member Ean Yong Hian Wah was reported to have been a witness in an MACC investigation into alleged irregularities in the disbursement of constituency development funds.

The Inquest has been postponed to March 1, at which time Dr Shahidan should be cross-examined and after which the Inquest will also listen to Porntip and Vanezis.

I'm most interested to see how Porntip is going to defend her 80 percent homicide theory. Remember, the Thai forensic expert had formed this theory after examining the first post-mortem photographs, one set of scene of incident reports, X-rays, and transcripts of Dr Khairul's and Dr Prashant's testimony. She was not given 3 DNA reports, toxicology report and two important sets of photographs and, therefore, was not aware of the negative DNA reports and toxicology report. Dr Porntip had agreed that it was important that she be given these reports before coming to an opinion, especially as she did not perform the autopsy, did not inspect the body and scene of the incident.