By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
April 22, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The family of dead Customs official Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed are dissatisfied with police investigations and claim his death is being covered up.
They also want to know the “real story” behind his death plunge at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office here on April 6 — the second such case in an anti-graft office.
“We know that the late Ahmad Sarbaini fell from a high place but what caused him to fall? What caused his death?” asked a family member who declined to be named.
“Because from what I understand is that if someone falls from the third floor then the person will only suffer from broken bones but will not die from it,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
Police said yesterday that the Selangor Customs assistant director died from head injuries due to the fall at the MACC building in Cheras.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah told reporters that it was now up to the Attorney-General to decide on the next course of action.
But the family said the police details were sketchy.
“The family questions why the investigation was not thorough. It is like they are trying to hide something.
“We are wondering if this story will just end like this. We are not satisfied with the results of the investigation and still want to know what happened. We want the real story,” the family source told The Malaysian Insider.
The source added that the family wants to know if Ahmad Sarbaini did fall or whether he was pushed from the third floor.
“That is why we want to know what happened. Why did he fall? Is true that he fell from the third floor or was he pushed?” he said.
MACC investigations director Datuk Mustafar Ali had said that Ahmad Sarbaini returned to the MACC building at 8.26am that day without an appointment and had requested to meet the investigation officer without stating why.
Ahmad Sarbaini had already given his statement to MACC and was released from custody at 12.30pm on April 2.
He had been remanded on March 29 following an MACC-led swoop on a Customs syndicate that it said was worth at least RM3 billion in unpaid taxes, resulting in the arrest of 62 officers.
Mustafar said an officer then accompanied Ahmad Sarbaini to a room in the office before leaving to collect the case file, but found him missing when he returned.
Ahmad Sarbaini’s body was later found on the badminton court on the first floor, but his friends have said it was impossible that he had committed suicide over the MACC investigations.
His family has said that it may sue the MACC if police investigations into his death do not favour the family.
The incident was a major blow to the anti-graft body’s credibility as it is already in the middle of a royal commission of inquiry into the mysterious death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock outside a MACC office in 2009.
Teoh, 30, had plunged from the then-Selangor MACC headquarters on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009 after he was questioned overnight by anti-graft officers.
#1 by monsterball on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 11:02 am
This reminds me of the first murder ever known to Malaysia to cover up corruptions.
The corruptions was exposed by LKS…Bank Bumiputra …and the murder took place on HongKong
Case never solved.
Yes hundreds of millions invloved ….all under the government of UMNO B…all forgotten.
That muslim Auditor is most unlucky…doing his job…and got murdered.
#2 by dagen on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 12:21 pm
See more and more issues. Umno the GOD of all gods firing itself in the foot all the time.
#3 by monsterball on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 12:46 pm
It is MCA leaders.. most corrupted politicians in Malalysia?
It is small UMNO B fishes most corrupted too.
Can you imagine..RM12.4 billion stolen under the nose of Mahathir…by MCA crooks?
I guess Mahathir prefered to be labelled and idiotic good for nothing PM for 22 years PM than be labelled as the master od all corruptions…under his own UMNO B.
I guess he has the right to take RM1.2 Malaysians money to bail out his son.
It is a game to keep loosing…keep bailing out with our money to cover up all corruptions.
Unfortunately….vast majority wage earners…including Govt. stuffs do not understand this..and that is where UMNO B is good at…fooling thier own race.
Najib stole RM500 million and said it is commission paid.
Why can’t a deal of this magitude be dealt from Govt to Govt?
Why must through third and fourth parties?
That is clear proof Najib is most corrupted and comfortable with…under Mahathir…his master..protector and godfather.
“lets move forward and forget the past”..was their call.
How sickening can these crooks be.
Yet….quite a large number of UMNO B members think Mahathir and Najib stole from other races…never from Muslim brothers and sisters.
What kind of brains the have?
#4 by yhsiew on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 1:13 pm
///Police said yesterday that the Selangor Customs assistant director died from head injuries due to the fall at the MACC building in Cheras.///
How could the police give such stupid answer. It is who caused the Customs assistant director to jump out of the window that is important.
#5 by k1980 on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 1:38 pm
Off-topic but of utmost urgency—
http://malaysiakini.com/letters/161337
Tickets to a certain event were to be given out to students. However, due to limited tickets, they had suggested
drawing of lots. Which to me is fair and square.
Apparently, after the lots were drawn and tickets were distributed to the successful draws, some students were unhappy that they did not get the tickets.
A Malay student who had failed to secure a ticket stood up and commented that tickets should have been distributed according to the race quota as practised in Malaysia!
#6 by k1980 on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 2:00 pm
Jib was taking his entire cabinet ministers along with their families on a holiday cruise ship near the north pole when it struck an iceberg. There were not enough lifeboats for all, so a trembling Koh TK suggested that lots be drawn for places in the boats. However, Moo shot down that proposal by insisting that places in the lifeboats be allocated according to the NEP. So perished all the pendatangs in Jib’s cabinet.
Moral of the joke— Don’t go cruising near the north pole even if Kate Winslett herself invites you
#7 by yhsiew on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 2:45 pm
I am not surprised that Sarbaini’s kin was not satisfied with the police investigation as the police failed to answer WHAT caused Sarbaini to fall.
#8 by Jeffrey on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 3:23 pm
I guess most next of kins/families of persons who died in custody are not satisfied (here or anywhere else). How could expectations of a vigorous and impartial investigation be met when the ones investigating and the ones investigated all belong to same group/organisation in which there prevails a sense of unity and of common interests in organisation (esprit de corps) and an unspoken moral code not to whistle- blow on the wrong doing of one’s own members or else risk being ostracised by the rest of the group? Though MACC Police Immigration are strictly different organisations the institutional connection between them is obvious: they’re all law enforcement agencies;they are state agents paid and protected by same employer; they all have powers of enforcement & detention; their members migrate from one agency to the other; they cooperate in their work, share data etc – naturally protect each others back. The State is also not happy to get to bottom of things as any unlawful action by law enforcement agents reflect bad on the employer and invites consequences of being sued. The State lawyer also cannot prosecute, even assuming he were so inclined, when investigation is deliberately skewed or slip shod.
#9 by ktteokt on Friday, 22 April 2011 - 6:05 pm
It does not matter how he died but why he died and why within the premises of MACC? Has MACC turned from a government agency into an ABATTOIR?
#10 by ktteokt on Saturday, 23 April 2011 - 9:00 pm
I don’t think they can try another “Teoh Beng Hock” this time. The one who got killed had a different skin colour!