SUNGAI BULOH: Pathologists today completed a second post-mortem on deceased political secretary Teoh Beng Hock's body, and the remains are scheduled to be returned to his final resting place on Tuesday.

Beng Hock's sister Teoh Lee Lan said the family had been briefed on today's post-mortem procedure, but remained tight-lipped on the preliminary findings.

According to Lee Lan, the family "did not really understand" what the findings were as they did not comprehend the medical terms used.

"Please be patient. Wait for the (second post-mortem) report," Lee Lan told reporters after the post-mortem at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

When asked, Lee Lan said she was not certain if the report would be completed when the inquest resumes on Dec 9 at the Shah Alam Magistrate's Court.

She added that the family had chosen Tuesday to rebury Beng Hock at the Nirvana Memorial Park in Semenyih.

The deceased's remains were exhumed last Saturday after coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas granted an application by the Teoh family for the second post-mortem.

The post-mortem was conducted by Sungai Buloh Hospital chief pathologist Dr Shahidan Md Noor with the assistance of Dr K Saravanan, from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) in Klang, who took photographs.

The procedure was observed by prominent Thai forensics expert Dr Porntip Rojanasunan, who is engaged by the Selangor state government, as well as Dr Peter Vanezis, an expert engaged by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Also present were the two government doctors who conducted the first post mortem on July 17 — HTAR senior consultant pathologist Dr Khairul Azman Ibrahim and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre's pathologist and lecturer Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar.

The whole post-mortem took almost five hours.

The pathologists held meetings before and after conducting another X-ray and a computerised axial tomography (CT) scan on Beng Hock's body prior to dissecting the body, said the Teoh family's counsel Gobind Singh Deo.

"We want this to be a complete post-mortem so no more questions arise. We told the doctors that time is not a constraint," Gobind told an earlier impromptu press conference at the hospital's cafeteria.

Gobind also thanked the police for reacting quickly following complaints that Porntip had been followed by several cars while she was travelling from her hotel to the cemetery in Semenyih for the exhumation.

"To those following her, (I want to say) please come forward, tell us who you are and what you want. Don't be cowards," Gobind said.

Gobind, who is also the Puchong member of parliaemnt, left the hospital after the post-mortem without speaking to the press.

Porntip, who is director-general of the Thai Ministry of Justice's Central Institute for Forensic Science, gave evidence at the inquest on Oct 21 where she noted several bodily injuries that pointed to the possibility that Beng Hock had been assaulted before falling to his death.

Among those noted were strangulation marks on Beng Hock's neck, penetration wounds to the anal region and a skull injury which Porntip said could have arose from being hit by a blunt object.

After the exhumation, Porntip noted that Beng Hock's body was still in good condition, giving reassurance that another post-mortem could still be performed despite having been buried for more than four months.

Hopes are running high that the second post-mortem will be able to shed more light on the circumstances surrounding the 30-year-old political secretary's unexpected death.

Beng Hock was found dead on July 16 on a fifth floor landing at the Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, next to a tower block that houses the Selangor MACC.

He was earlier questioned overnight as a witness in state MACC's probe into the constituency allocations of his employer, Selangor state executive council member Ean Yong Hian Wah.