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.