Sivanesan says,"I was beaten up by MACC officers.........."

The "mystery witness" in the Teoh Beng Hock inquest described today how he was "beaten up" by officers of the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in September last year.

T. Sivanesan, 22, the assistant manager of a Kuantan-based scaffolding company, said he was slapped, kicked, punched, beaten with a metal bar, and hit on his gentals with a cane. Sivanesan, the inquest's 20th witness, was allowed by Azmil Muntapha Abas, acting as a coroner, to testify after an application by Gobind Singh Deo, counsel for the Teoh family, yesterday.

He said three MACC officers went to his house in Klang on Sept 4 to ask him to help in an investigation. He was brought to the Selangor MACC offices on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam where, he said, he was "pressured" to sign a confession and admit his guilt in the case and "threatened with torture" if he did not comply.

"An officer named Mohan said to me in Tamil that if I didn't tell the truth, it would be 'hell'," said Sivanesan, who gave a graphic account of his interrogation, which began at 11pm on Sept 4.

"About 10 to 15 officers came up to me and slapped and kicked me and punched me all over my body."

At one point, he said, he saw a "tall officer, wearing glasses, wrapping a piece of metal in newspapers".

"He came forward to slap me five or six times before asking me to sign a document.

"He ordered me to strip down to my underwear. He beat me with the metal bar, all over my body, but mainly on my buttocks."

Sivanesan, who said he was handcuffed, continued: "An officer named Ashraf came in ... and slapped me more than twice. He brought in a cane about two-and-a-half feet long and beat me on my genitals with the cane." He said Ashraf asked him to put his clothes back on when someone said the deputy director was arriving.

"I then heard the deputy director saying 'continue, beat him until he confesses'," he said.

Sivanesan said he could recognise Ashraf after seeing his photograph in the newspapers. He said he blacked out before waking at 5.30am the next day to find a plastic bag containing ice in his ripped underwear. Sivanesan said he was beaten again later that afternoon and at midnight on the third day and that he could not walk after being hit on the soles of the feet.

Asked by Gobind whether he reported the incident after his release, he said he filed reports with Suaram, Suhakam and the Public Complaints Bureau of the prime minister's office besides making the police report.

"I was also treated for four days at Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital, Klang for injuries to the head, kidneys and genitals," he said.

He identified photographs of the bruises and injuries which he said were taken on Sept 10. The inquest continues.

source: theSun