The late Teoh Beng Hock’s parents have filed a judicial review over the delay by the police in completing their investigation into his death in 2009.
Beng Hock’s father, Leong Hwee, and mother Teng Shuw Hoi are seeking an order from the High Court to compel the inspector-general of police (IGP) to complete the investigation within a month from the time the court gives the order.
They have named the government, the IGP and the Bukit Aman CID director as respondents in their application filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Jan 4.
However, the couple must obtain leave of the court for the merit of their complaint to be heard.
Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh said the legal papers had been submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chamber and that the attorney-general was objecting to the application.
“The leave application has been fixed for hearing before Judge Noorin Badaruddin on June 16,” he said.
The parents are seeking a mandamus order to compel the IGP to complete the investigation into Beng Hock’s death within one month of the judgment, regarding their application, by the High Court.
They are also seeking several declarations, one of which is that the police were negligent in their duty to complete the probe within a reasonable time.
Beng Hock, the then political aide to Selangor executive councillor and DAP Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on July 16, 2009, on the fifth-floor service corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.
He had been held there overnight and questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission whose Selangor headquarters was on the 14th floor.
A royal commission of inquiry in 2011 held that he was driven to commit suicide following aggressive questioning by MACC.
However, a three-member Court of Appeal bench in 2014 ruled that his death was caused by the act of “person or persons unknown”, including the MACC officers who had questioned him overnight before he was found dead.
The High Court had also awarded the family about RM600,000 in damages for negligence in an out-of-court settlement.
Teng, in an affidavit in support of the judicial review, said police had failed to complete the investigation into her son’s death despite the 2014 Court of Appeal decision.
She said the police had formed three separate task forces – in 2011, 2014 and 2018 – to investigate her son’s death, and the last update on the probe was communicated to them through their lawyers last year.