What four gruelling interrogations did to Teoh

Four interrogations endured by Teoh Beng Hock caused him to move from being in the low-risk group for suicide into the high-risk group in just 13 hours, and this is detailed in the 124-page report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh's death.

First interrogation (6pm to 10pm on July 15)

After being brought into the Selangor office of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) from Selangor state government building, Teoh underwent a so-called "calming therapy" designed by MACC officer Mohd Anuar Ismail.

He was verbally assaulted by a team of officers, numbering six to seven at one time, or others during this period who were told to "chat" with him "to calm him down". They asked repeated questions of his background.The commission is of the view that the method of interrogation was done with a particular objective: to break down Teoh's resistance and to force him to say what the MACC officers wanted.

"The therapeutic treatment designed by Anuar to calm Teoh down through a "chat" at the Pen Mas area must have had a profound effect on him. He had to endure this torture for four hours," the report says."Teoh was reserved, quite most of the time, kept to himself, and only answered questions when asked. Such a description of Teoh's mood fits the characteristics of a person who was being intimidated."


Second interrogation (10.45pm on July 15 to 12.45am on July 16)

The second stage of the interrogation came from MACC officers Arman Alies and Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus, who the report respectively described as the 'bully', who would manipulate his witness to obtain evidence, and the 'abuser', who was Machiavellian in his methods to secure evidence.

The commission found the so-called interviews to be more like an inquisition. Both of them turned the four files over to Teoh and demanded that he find them matching documents to those obtained from Teoh's laptop.They then went even further by picking out suspicious documents from the four files and demanded explanations from Teoh, without first investigating into the matters themselves.

"Arman  and Ashraf behaved like inquisitors in an inquisition at the second stage of the interrogation.

"They instilled doubts and fear into Teoh as regards the Treasury directives that required for the caling of at least three tenders before a contract could be awarded."But if both of them intentionally exploited Teoh's ignorance or lack of knowledge of the new set of rulings and directives of the state government of Selangor on this matter, their effort to confuse and cause anxiety to Teoh was most deplorable indeed," the report says.The report also points out that the duo extracted from Teoh his password to his private email account, which was a gross violation of the right to privacy.

"As this held the key to many things private, Teoh must have felt that his privacy was violated under duress, and the secrets of his life were in the open. This was a gross violation of Teoh's personal rights, which would have compounded his anxiety and worry," the RCI report says.The commission noted that from the police records tendered, out of the 20 cases reported against the Selangor MACC officers for assault, Ashraf was involved in 14 of them.

Third interrogation (1.30am to 3.30am on July 16)

Another MACC officer, Mohd Nadzri Ibrahim, recorded Teoh's statement during this session. The commission thought this process would have involved Teoh repeating the answers that he had given to Arman and Ashraf, but it turned out to be another forum of interrogation. Nadzri started afresh and questioned Teoh all over again for two hours.

The commission was puzzled over the inordinate length of time taken and pointed out the possibility that Nadzri deliberately prolonged this process to torture Teoh mentally and disorientate him to agree to turn against his boss out of despair."We find that this process added further strain and duress on Teoh... this exercise was demanding, with documents having to be referred to and checked... from this we can gather that Teoh was utterly frustrated, disappointed and angry... Teoh could have been driven further to want to 'escape' from it all."

Fourth interrogation (postulation)

The commissioners said what they have described in the previous three interrogations were factors contributing immensely to Teoh's decision to take his own life.The commission said that Teoh would have been "almost a mental and physical wreck" by the time the purported fourth, or final stage, of the interrogation was over.

"When Ashraf fetched him a glass of water (demanded impolitely by Teoh), Teoh was said to have sat up very slowly," the report added.

"Despite the habitual denials by the MACC officers-cum-interrogators, it could be safely concluded that their interrogation methods ranged from earnest and intensive questioninig to outright psychological intimidation and physical threats."The commission also said that the then Selangor MACC deputy director Hishamuddin Hashim - dubbed as the 'arrogant leader' by RCI - who ordered the investigation on Selangor Pakatan Rakyat assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah, should be held responsible for the actions taken by him and his officers, which propelled Teoh to commit suicide."However, there was no direct evidence to prove that Hishammudin had a hand in the death of Teoh."

Psychological changes

On the psychological changes to Teoh during his detention at the Selangor MACC office, the report quotes Paul Edward Mullen, the emeritus professor of forensic psychiatry from Monash University, Australia.According to Mullen, Teoh "... was firmly in the lowest risk group for suicide when he was taken to MACC custody", and, if Teoh "... did kill himself, things were likely to have occurred both to undermine his psychological stability and to frighten him literally to death".

"Also, his concern for his family, and for his future wife and mother of his child, could have been turned into a weapon against him by a totally unscrupulous interrogator, as could his loyalty and sense of responsibility to his colleagues."

According to two other psychiatrists, Dr Badi'ah and Dr Nor Hayati Ali from the Health Ministry, Teoh also faced two life-impacting events that could have added stress to his life:

1. The bringing forward of the date of his wedding from 2010 to Oct 13, 2009, upon discovering that his fiancee was pregnant; and

2. The gathering of documents by the Selangor MACC from the District and Land Offices, insinuating a misappropriation of the allocation by his boss Ean Yong Hian Wah.The commission also noted that Teoh's relationship with Ean Yong was mutually cordial and respectful one, thus attempts to plant ideas of betrayal of his superior would have been very stressful to Teoh.

The commission was of the view that after the MACC took away Teoh's mobile phone, an instrument most often used by him to relieve stress and stay in contact with his friends and family at regular daily intervals, he found himself totally and completely isolated from the outside world and thrust into desolation.

Therefore, the commission concluded that "Teoh experienced a change in his state of mind".

"And in a matter of hours, this change transformed him from being in the low-risk group for suicide into the high-risk group. The doubts, extreme emotional conflict and the immense feeling of guilt were all intolerable.

"Finding no viable strategies to surmount the hurdle of accusations levelled, he found himself unable to escape from the suffocating quagmire in which he was trapped. Losing all hope, Teoh would have felt trapped and have succumbed to despair.

"Since the window on the 14th floor was either open or could be easily opened and it was conspicuous and easily accessible... Teoh would have found that the only way for escape from the torment he was undergoing was by jumping out of the window, even though it meant taking his own life."

Other important points made by the commission:

1. The commission agreed with Dr Prashant Naresh Samberker of Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim of Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang, that the time of death of Teoh was between 7.15am and 11.15am.

2. It also concluded that Teoh fell from the window on the 14th floor and was conscious when he fell.

3. However, it disagreed with Dr Khunying Porntip Rojanansunan that the linear fractures of the skull and haemorrhaging on the surface of the brain, was not caused by being hit with a blunt object before he fell.

4. The commission ruled out manual strangulation on Teoh before he fell, as claimed by Porntip, and was of the view that the light pink stain on the neck was most certainly due to post-mortem staining.

5. The commission excluded the possibility of MACC officers holding Teoh by the belt and dangling him from a height before he fell because no DNA of MACC officers involved in the case was found on the belt by forensic scientist Seah Lay Hong.

Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/170666