SHAH ALAM, Aug 18 — As Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand faced relentless questions today about her qualifications and her testimony, the Thai forensic expert delivered what could perhaps be the line that fortifies her credibility as an expert witness in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest.
“You have to understand. I work for the rights of the dead, not the Selangor government,” she told the Coroner’s Court, drawing applause from a packed gallery, after Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) lawyer Datuk Abdul Razak Musa had questioned her qualification.
She had earlier maintained that she was sure Teoh’s death last year was not a suicide, but she declined to repeat her previous assertion that it was 80 per cent a homicide.
Dr Pornthip was testifying for the second time at the inquest into DAP political aide Teoh’s death. Teoh is suspected to have fallen from the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam, then state headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Before his body was found on a fifth floor landing he had been questioned overnight by the MACC.
Earlier today in court, Dr Pornthip testified that she disagreed with the findings of Dr Peter Vanezis, the British forensic pathologist brought in by the MACC to observe Teoh’s second post mortem last year. Dr Pornthip was also an observer.
Later, under questioning from Abdul Razak, who had suggested she was attacking the MACC with her testimony, she also told the court her university was among the top five in Asia when the MACC lawyer questioned her qualifications.
After telling Abdul Razak that she was working for the rights of the dead, she added that “my objective is to help the dead.”
Undaunted, Abdul Razak asked the Thai pathologist why she did not consider what transpired the night before Teoh was found dead.
“It is not important for the autopsy,” she said.
Asked again by Abdul Razak if she considered the point that there was no eye-witness to the pre-fall injury she asserted Teoh had sustained, Dr Pornthip answered that such injuries could be proven by scientific means.
At one point, Dr Pornthip even asked Abdul Razak if was indeed a lawyer, drawing more laughter from the gallery. Abdul Razak said he had been a lawyer for 24 years.
In what became a battle of wits, Abdul Razak also suggested that Dr Pornthip kept changing her position and “the goalpost.”
Abdul Razak then went on to point out to the inconsistencies of Dr Pornthip’s findings with those of Dr Vanezis and other local doctors.-tmi
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