Mat Zain claims A-G interfered with forensic experts

By Shannon Teoh | August 11, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 11 — Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim has continued his attacks on Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, claiming today that the Attorney-General has caused the public to lose faith in government inquests and inquiries due to his alleged interference in testimony made by forensic experts.

The former city criminal investigation chief said today that Dr Abdul Rahman Yusof, the forensic expert in former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s black-eye probe that Mat Zain had headed, “was willing to prepare three false reports according to orders by Gani Patail.”

“We cannot blame the public if they have lost confidence in government pathology and forensic experts… ridiculing and abusing their opinions in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest and royal commission of inquiry (RCI) and also the inquest of Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad,” he wrote in an open letter to the Inspector-General of Police.

Doubts have been raised over testimony by experts from government hospitals and the Chemistry Department in the recent cases of Teoh and Ahmad Sarbaini, a former DAP aide and senior Customs officer respectively, who both plunged to their deaths at different Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) offices.

Early this year, a coroner’s inquest into Teoh’s death had returned an open verdict ruling out both suicide and homicide some 18 months after his fatal fall at the Selangor MACC office. The Najib administration was forced to form an RCI, which also found that Teoh had committed suicide.

Mat Zain said today that Dr Abdul Rahman had prepared three “expert reports”, all of which contradicted one other “without making any physical examination on the patient.”

“This means Dr Abdul Rahman prepared those reports using his imagination and based on just photos and reports of other experts, without any discussing with them or the investigating officer of the case,” he wrote.

He claimed the first and second reports had been presented to the RCI on Anwar’s assault, but that the first report later “disappeared” when the final report was presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

“Maybe Gani Patail or Dr Abdul Rahman themselves can explain this disappearance given that they both are interested parties in this report,” he said.

Mat Zain also called on police chief Tan Sri Ismail Omar to open investigations into this case since the police force has said it is investigating false reports of police brutality in the July 9 Bersih rally.

He added that “various parties (including himself), the loudest being the Bar Council, are also pressing for authorities to take action against MACC officers who gave false testimony” in the Teoh Beng Hock RCI.

In an earlier letter to the IGP, he had called on police to begin investigating the five MACC officers that the Teoh RCI found to have lied to the commission, three of whom he said should also be charged for abetment of suicide pursuant to the findings of the royal panel.

He has also repeatedly attacked Abdul Gani, most recently calling on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to sack the A-G for failing to initiate charges in high-profile cases such as the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

He has also called for a royal panel to investigate Abdul Gani’s role in destroying public confidence in the police.