Friday July 22, 2011

Teoh's family rejects findings; mum adamant he was murdered

ALOR GAJAH: The family of the late Teoh Beng Hock has refused to accept the Royal Commission of Inquiry's (RCI) findings that the political aide had committed suicide.

Teoh's mother Teng Shuw Hor, 58, insisted her son was murdered.

“I will not accept that my son would take his own life.

“My son was murdered,” she said when met at the family home at Taman Seri Kelemak here yesterday.

Emotional state: Lee Lan speaking through her tears during the press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Teng said her family was not convinced with the findings and insisted that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must be held fully responsible for Teoh's death.

“I cannot be patient. Whoever took him there (to the Selangor MACC building) must be held responsible,” she said, adding that those named in the RCI report must be prosecuted for murder.

The Star attempted to speak to Teoh's fiance Soh Cher Wei but she declined.

However, Soh, through an SMS in Mandarin, thanked the RCI for “allowing her to dream for several months”.

“(Now that) I have been slapped on my face, it is time to wake up,” she wrote.

In Kuala Lumpur, Teoh's younger sister Lee Lan, 31, told reporters that while there might have been evidence of “torture”, there was none that pointed to him having committed suicide.

“As a family, we cannot accept the conclusion of the report. It is not an answer for us,” she told a press conference at family lawyer Karpal Singh's office.

She said the report did not indicate what happened to her brother.

“My brother was not weak,” she added, in reference to her brother being called weak-willed.

Karpal said they would study the report in detail before deciding on the next course of action next week.

He said they were not discounting the possibility of applying for a juidicial review to challenge the findings of the report.

“The findings are shocking and unacceptable to the family. They want justice done,” he said.

*Full report of RCI findings

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