The Seremban coroner’s inquest into the murder of spare parts dealer Siew Nan Keong concluded yesterday with the verdict by Coroner L. Chandra Devi that whether an offence was committed by Alex Wong Teck Choy in contravention of any section of the Penal Code remained to be decided by a competent court should the public prosecutor decide to prosecute him.
She refrained from commenting on the issue of whether Wong was criminally concerned in the cause of death of Seow because there were three different versions as to how the incident took place.
She said: “In a full trial both parties will be given full latitude to ventilate their version of the incident”.
Wong was charged with the murder of Siew four hours after the coroner ruled that there were questions to be answered in an open court.
The Attorney-General’s Chambers’ handling of the case of Alex Wong, who had his bail extended seven times, had been most extraordinary.
Why was it necessary for a coroner’s inquest to be held into Siew’s death before the Attorney-General decided to prosecute Wong and is the holding of a coroner’s inquest going to be a precedent and standard practice for all such-like cases before murder charges are preferred by the Attorney-General in court?
In the interests of public confidence in a fair and impartial administration of justice, there should be a full accounting for the extraordinary conduct of the Alex Wong murder case by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and this is why the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim should make a Ministerial statement on the subject in Parliament.
(31/3/2001)