MACC officer linked to Teoh Beng Hock’s death promoted

Low said he is not aware of when the MACC officer was promoted but said the other two remained in the same grade without promotion or demotion since 2009. - The Malaysian Insider pic, November 17, 2014.A Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) officer who was part of an investigative team that led to the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock has been promoted.

Investigating officer Mohd Anuar Ismail who was at Grade 44 in 2009 is now at Grade 48, minister in the prime minister's department Datuk Paul Low told Parliament today in reply to Teo Nie Ching (DAP-Kulai).

There was no mention when the promotion took place and why he was bumped up.

Two other officers who were also part of the team, and who were named in an inquiry report on Teoh's death, were not promoted, Low said.

These are investigating officers Hishamuddin Hashim and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus who are still holding the same posts, namely Grade 54 and Grade 29, respectively, since 2009.

In 2011, the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) looking into Teoh's death released a report stating that he had committed suicide after relentless questioning by MACC investigators.

It named Hishamuddin, Mohd Ashraf and another officer Arman Alies as having played a role in Teoh's death.

Teoh, 30, was found sprawled outside on the roof at the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, after he was questioned overnight by MACC officers at their then Selangor office on the 14th floor.

Teoh was the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah at the time of his death and the anti-graft officers were investigating a claim that his boss was abusing state funds.

A coroner's inquest on his death gave an open verdict, with coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas ruling that Teoh's death was neither homicide nor suicide.

Bowing to public anger over the coroner’s open verdict, the government agreed to set up an RCI to probe how Teoh had plunged to his death and to look into MACC’s investigative methods.

Following the RCI's findings, Teoh's family applied to the courts to revise the coroner's open verdict and last September, the Court of Appeal set aside the open verdict by the coroner on Teoh's death, ruling that "a person or persons were responsible for his death".

In Parliament, Teo questioned why no action was taken against the three officers more than two months after the Court of Appeal judgment.

"Both police and MACC must react to the judgment by the Court of Appeal. The decision is unanimous.

"The unwillingness to take action against the trio is either a silent protest against the findings of the three learned Court of Appeal judges, or a cover up.

"Whichever the case, it will for sure render our judiciary system a mockery. Have we become a nation where there are wrongful acts but no wrongdoers?" she said in a statement today.

- TMI