Kajang municipal councillor Tan Boon Wah lied in court about being tortured by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), a lawyer for the MACC said today.
Tan had concocted the story about being mentally tortured and threatened with assault, alleged Mohammad Shafee Abdullah.
He said this while questioning Tan sky lanterns at the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating Teoh Beng Hock’s death.
“You created this story about threats and assaults because you wanted to gain as much sympathy as possible,” Shafee said to Tan.
Shafee asked Tan why he had not included these allegations of torture in his lawsuit against the MACC. “There was not even a ‘hint of torture’.
“I’m putting it to you that the only reason you and your capable lawyers did not include torture in the affidavit is that the threats never happened,” Shafee said.
“Your honour, it happened. It really happened,” replied Tan.
Tan admitted that “an important point” was left out from the lawsuit but when pressed by Shafee, he said he could not answer why that (point) was left out.
Tan said his suit was focused on interrogations after office hours and he was trying to prohibit MACC from continuing with that practice.
“Actually about the torture, I made a police report sky lanterns. I also informed the press,” Tan said.
James Foong (RCI chairman): But why didn’t you say the same thing in your civil case?
Tan: I’m not so good about the law. And this affidavit was not done by me but by my lawyers (including Karpal Singh). The main thing we were focusing on is the word ‘day to day’.
Tan had given a statement to the police concerning Teoh’s death several days after he was found dead.
Asked why he had not sued sky lanterns the police for taking his statements after office hours (9-11pm), Tan replied: “Because they didn’t torture me.”
This drew laughter from the gallery.
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