Malaysia Update - KUALA LUMPUR: Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand today reaffirmed her earlier testimony that Teoh Beng Hock could have been assaulted before falling to his death, saying that the marks on the neck indicate that he could have been strangled.”That contusion (bruise) on the neck is incompatible with the fall from height or an accident,” she told the Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating Teoh’s death.
Pornthip, 56, the director-general of the Thai government’s Central Instititute of Forensic Science, was testifying in a packed courtroom today. She was dressed in a grey outfit with a colourful scarf, and sported her usual multi-coloured punk-rock dyed hair and boots.
Pornthip said that she came to her conclusion over the pre-fall injury on the neck from photographs taken during the first post-mortem.
Besides manual strangulation, it could also have been caused by a strike using a hard object or a combination of both, she added.
The forensic expert said that she observed “more than one coin-like bruise” seen in a 4×3 cm mark on the left side of the neck. She said this was typical of a wound caused by fingers or a thumb.
Pornthip said that suicide victims normally did not have such marks on the neck.
According to her forensic textbooks, she said, such marks were typically seen in cases of strangulation.
“The round wounds, shaped like a coin. look like something that may come from a finger, a thumb. we call it a ‘handle bruise’,” she explained.
Pornthip then showed the commission photos comparing a case of strangulation with the marks on Teoh’s neck. “You can see it looks the same,” she concluded.
However, these marks were contested by conducting officer Amarjeet Singh, who pointed out that he only saw a “diffuse pinkish patch” and not the one as pronounced in her textbook.
“That’s because you are not the doctor,” Pornthip retorted, drawing laughter from the gallery.
Asked by Amarjeet about the lack of fractures to Teoh’s hyoid bone, Pornthip said that not all strangulation would fracture the hyoid bone.
‘Shouldn’t there be more marks?’
Commissioner and forensic pathologist Dr Bhupinder Singh asked whether the neck wounds could have been diffused post-mortem staining.
Pornthip replied that only by conducting an autopsy could she tell for sure.
“I agree that it is a mark, but there is only one. Don’t you think if it was strangulation there should be maybe four finger marks?” asked Bhupinder, referring Pornthip to another photograph where the neck-wound was less pronounced.
Pornthip then explained that the area under the chin was protected and was unlikely to have hit anything during a fall, adding that the hemmorhaging of the neck was not connected to injuries from a fall.
“In cases of deaths in custody or extra-judicial killings, we have to be aware of these marks. In this case, all the injuries in the neck are not comparable to a fall from height,” she said.
Bhupinder also questioned if the wounds under the neck did not seem to correspond to the “finger injuries” on the surface, but Pornthip replied firmly:”They correspond for me.”
Asked by commission chairman James Foong, Pornthip also justified why she thought it was strangulation when the marks were only on one side of the neck, saying:”There are many cases where bruises only appear on one side.”
Foong: Have you heard of a neckhold? Is that possible?
Pornthip: No no no… It’s not so in this case. Because if you apply a neckhold, there would be a diffused contusion (on the neck).
Foong: Then.. what other blunt objects do you mean (could cause the neck injury), would a stick be possible?
Pornthip: Stick? Yes.
Amarjeet: Would the object be coin-shaped?
Pornthip: Yes, maybe a stick or an object where the ending is round.
Amarjeet: Could it have been a hit?
Pornthip: Yes, maybe, hit with a hard object.
Asked if there was a possibility that the internal hemmorhage in the neck was actually caused by blood diffused there from other areas, Pornthip disagreed.
“You mean the cervical spine? In my experience, in 94 cases, we found no bleeding of the cervical spine, not so much as this. That’s because there’s no blood vessel on the verterbra,” she said.
Pornthip also said today that it was possible that the crack in the skull could have been caused due to a hit from a blunt object either before Teoh fell or when he landed on something on the ground.
This view contradicted with the opinion of other experts who did the first post mortem (Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar and Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim) who said that the crack was caused by a transfer of force from the legs (the part which hit the ground first).
However, Pornthip agreed that Teoh’s death was not caused by the injury to the skull and the strangulation.
Pornthip said that Teoh died from the fall and was alive before he hit the ground, but could not be sure if he was conscious.
Asked by Bar Council lawyer T Sivaneindiren about fractures on Teoh’s wrists, Pornthip said that the fractures were not defensive injuries.
Pornthip said that the cause was a “friction force with the ground” resulting in a “brush burn abrasion.”
Earlier, Pornthip said she did not stand by all the views that she proposed when she gave her opinion on Teoh’s death based on photographs, and pathologist notes from the first post-mortem.
To substantiate what she said, she needed to see the body herself and hence the second post mortem was done.
Pornthip also agreed to a suggestion by Sivaneindiren if a breast bone fracture found on Teoh’s body could have been caused by someone jumping on his chest.
“If you look at it, yes. I have many cases of people being jumped on where there are similar fractures on the chest,” she said.
Sivaneindiren: How about if someone did CPR and didn’t know how to do it properly?
Pornthip: Also possible.
However, Pornthip later said that the injury was in her opinion caused by the fall itself.
Two possible torture methods
Earlier, Bar Council’s Edmund Bon suggested two possible methods the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could have employed to torture Teoh to the then Selangor MACC deputy
director Hishamuddin Hashim.
Bon: I put it to you that on the night (July 15,2009), one of the techniques used was to hold Teoh by his belt and shake him to scare him so that he gave his statement.
Hishamuddin: It’s speculation and slander.
Bon: Another technique was to blindfold him and bring him to a high place, to scare him… saying that you would push him.
However, Bon was interrupted by MACC lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who asked if the Bar Council had any element of proof or was merely asking “searching questions.”
Foong agreed that allegations should be substantiated but said that an inquiry such as this would allow it, but there should be limits.
Hishamuddin then replied to the earlier suggestion, saying: “I do not agree at all. We were not so desperate. We are not inhumane… he was an important witness, we needed to take care of him for our investigations.”
Hishamuddin also dismissed a suggestion that he himself had personally interrogated Teoh because another witness, Tan Boon Wah, had ceased to cooperate.
Bon then accused Hishamuddin of not sleeping on that said night as he had testified as there were people who saw him.
Bon also suggested that Hishamuddin had failed to clock out with his punch-card after Teoh had died as he was in a hurry to leave, to which Hishamuddin disagreed.
Commissioner T Selventhiranathan had asked: “You said Teoh was an important witness, and was closely connected to the suspect. If your officers managed to turn Teoh against his boss, wouldn’t it been a success? Wouldn’t it have made a big impact on the case?”
“Yes,” replied Hishamuddin.
Teoh, a former reporter and Ean Yong’s political aide, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.
He had been interrogated the night before by MACC officers at their office, located on the 14th floor of the same building.
On Jan 5, coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas returned an open verdict in the inquest into Teoh’s death, ruling out both suicide and homicide.
Subsequently, the government caved in to public pressure and established the commission now sitting.
It is investigating both the cause of Teoh’s death and MACC’s interrogation methods. The inquiry is scheduled to end on April 25.
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