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Thursday 22 October 2009
Death of Malaysian Political Aide
The inquest into the mysterious death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock took a dramatic turn yesterday, after a well-known Thai pathologist said that it was most likely a killing.
She says he was likely killed, disagreeing with govt-appointed experts
By Teo Cheng Wee 22 October 2009
KUALA LUMPUR: The inquest into the mysterious death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock took a dramatic turn yesterday, after a well-known Thai pathologist said that it was most likely a killing.
Pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand said the likelihood of a killing was 80 per cent.
Her testimony at the coroner’s court is at odds with that of the two government-appointed pathologists involved in the inquest. They felt that Mr. Teoh, 30, committed suicide.
Dr. Pornthip was hired as an expert witness by the Selangor state government - which is ruled by the Pakatan Rakyat alliance - and her views yesterday suggested that he had suffered injuries before he fell to his death. He was then under detention by a federal anti-corruption commission.
She pointed out that Mr. Teoh’s skull fracture was not typical of an injury suffered from a fall. Instead, it appeared as if the skull was hit by a blunt force.
She added that, before his fall, Mr. Teoh also suffered anal penetration and that he could have been strangled as there were bruises around his neck.
The anal injury was caused by inserting an object, she noted.
‘I have never seen such injury in cases of a fall from a height,’ she said.
Dr. Pornthip felt that Mr. Teoh was probably unconscious when he fell, judging from the lack of injuries to his wrists and ankles.
If he had been conscious, she explained, he would have had ‘reaction wounds’ from instinctively trying to stop himself from hitting the ground.
The flamboyant Dr. Pornthip, well-known for challenging the authorities in her own country, is director and co-founder of the Thai Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science.
She is best known for her work in identifying victims after the 2004 tsunami and recently investigated the death of Hollywood star David Carradine.
The 54-year-old told the court she has conducted more than 10,000 autopsies, of which about 100 dealt with fatal falls from a high place.
But she did not have a chance to do an autopsy on Mr. Teoh’s body. Instead, she had to depend on the reports of the other two pathologists, Dr. Khairul Azman Ibrahim and Dr. Prashant Samberkar.
Her conclusions differed from theirs, and not only on how Mr. Teoh died.
Dr. Khairul had earlier said that Mr. Teoh was conscious when he fell, while Dr. Prashant said that abrasion marks on Mr. Teoh’s shoes were caused by impact with the ground.
Dr. Pornthip contended that Mr. Teoh was dragged.
‘In normal cases of a fall from a height, the shoes would not have left an abrasion mark like this,’ she said.
The differing testimonies - from experts on opposing sides - will only lend more intrigue to the inquest, which has already gone on for more than two months.
Dr. Pornthip told the court yesterday that she would like to carry out her own autopsy, but the coroner said that it may be too late to do so.
Meanwhile, Mr. Teoh’s family said yesterday that they would consider exhuming his body to allow Dr. Pornthip to do a post-mortem.
Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim also reiterated the call for a royal commission of inquiry into Mr. Teoh’s death.
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.
2 comments:
Death of Malaysian Political Aide
Thai expert drops a bombshell at inquest
She says he was likely killed, disagreeing with govt-appointed experts
By Teo Cheng Wee
22 October 2009
KUALA LUMPUR: The inquest into the mysterious death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock took a dramatic turn yesterday, after a well-known Thai pathologist said that it was most likely a killing.
Pathologist Pornthip Rojanasunand said the likelihood of a killing was 80 per cent.
Her testimony at the coroner’s court is at odds with that of the two government-appointed pathologists involved in the inquest. They felt that Mr. Teoh, 30, committed suicide.
Dr. Pornthip was hired as an expert witness by the Selangor state government - which is ruled by the Pakatan Rakyat alliance - and her views yesterday suggested that he had suffered injuries before he fell to his death. He was then under detention by a federal anti-corruption commission.
She pointed out that Mr. Teoh’s skull fracture was not typical of an injury suffered from a fall. Instead, it appeared as if the skull was hit by a blunt force.
She added that, before his fall, Mr. Teoh also suffered anal penetration and that he could have been strangled as there were bruises around his neck.
The anal injury was caused by inserting an object, she noted.
‘I have never seen such injury in cases of a fall from a height,’ she said.
Dr. Pornthip felt that Mr. Teoh was probably unconscious when he fell, judging from the lack of injuries to his wrists and ankles.
If he had been conscious, she explained, he would have had ‘reaction wounds’ from instinctively trying to stop himself from hitting the ground.
The flamboyant Dr. Pornthip, well-known for challenging the authorities in her own country, is director and co-founder of the Thai Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science.
She is best known for her work in identifying victims after the 2004 tsunami and recently investigated the death of Hollywood star David Carradine.
The 54-year-old told the court she has conducted more than 10,000 autopsies, of which about 100 dealt with fatal falls from a high place.
But she did not have a chance to do an autopsy on Mr. Teoh’s body. Instead, she had to depend on the reports of the other two pathologists, Dr. Khairul Azman Ibrahim and Dr. Prashant Samberkar.
Her conclusions differed from theirs, and not only on how Mr. Teoh died.
Dr. Khairul had earlier said that Mr. Teoh was conscious when he fell, while Dr. Prashant said that abrasion marks on Mr. Teoh’s shoes were caused by impact with the ground.
Dr. Pornthip contended that Mr. Teoh was dragged.
‘In normal cases of a fall from a height, the shoes would not have left an abrasion mark like this,’ she said.
The differing testimonies - from experts on opposing sides - will only lend more intrigue to the inquest, which has already gone on for more than two months.
Dr. Pornthip told the court yesterday that she would like to carry out her own autopsy, but the coroner said that it may be too late to do so.
Meanwhile, Mr. Teoh’s family said yesterday that they would consider exhuming his body to allow Dr. Pornthip to do a post-mortem.
Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim also reiterated the call for a royal commission of inquiry into Mr. Teoh’s death.
Opposition aide’s death homicide? ‘Most probably’
By S JAYASANKARAN
22 October 2009
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.
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