Teoh Lee Lan said the matter had brought a lot of hurt to her family, who was often asked why they were still pursuing the matter as though they were ungrateful for the settlement.
However, she said the RM600,000 in damages given to her family in 2015 was not a pay-off to prevent them from continuing investigations into the case.
“There is a misunderstanding,” she said at a forum commemorating her brother at the Kuala Lumpur and Chinese Assembly Hall last night.
“The compensation has no relation to a criminal case settlement. When compensation is paid, it does not mean that a criminal case is settled.
“A civil case is settled with a compensation, while a criminal case will be settled with the criminal tried in court.”
The civil suit brought by Beng Hock’s family against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the government at the time, and 12 others for negligence over his death, was settled without going to trial.
Beng Hock’s family lawyer Ramkarpal Singh, who was also present at the forum last night, said it was a normal legal process where a civil case is settled without prejudice.
This means that the case is settled outside of court, but without forfeiting a person’s right to pursue other avenues or means in the case.
“The criminal case which was pursued is completely separate from the civil case,” he said. “Civil cases can be settled outside of court.
“Another way of looking at it is, if the MACC was not liable in any event, there would have been no reason for it to pay compensation to the family.
“The very fact that they paid compensation is an acknowledgement on their part that they are culpable to a certain extent. I hope the case will be looked at from that angle as well.”
Last month, the Cabinet gave approval for investigations to be reopened into the death of Beng Hock, who was the political aide to DAP assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah.
Beng Hock was found dead on a rooftop adjacent to the MACC office in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009, a day after being taken in for questioning over allegedly fraudulent disbursements of constituency allocations.