Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed’s family is waiting for the Attorney-General’s next move before deciding whether to proceed with legal action over the Customs official’s death.
Family lawyer Ghazali Mohd Ramli said any further action would depend entirely on how the A-G planned to handle the case, which now lies in the latter’s hands.
“Appropriate action will be taken once the A-G decides what to do with the police investigation report.
“At this point, I still cannot reveal anything. Furthermore, I do not know the contents of the report... so let’s wait for the A-G’s response first,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
He declined further comment, saying that he did not want to interfere in the police investigation.
“We do not know what happened. What we know was that Sarbaini plunged from a high level but why he fell, we do not know.
“What we know is based on plenty of speculation, we do not have the real information and I believe the police know what happened. In any case, we will just wait,” he said.
Police had said the Selangor Customs assistant director died from head injuries due to the fall at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building in Cheras here.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah had told reporters that it was now up to the A-G to decide on the next course of action.
But Ahmad Sarbaini’s family has said that the police details were sketchy and expressed their dissatisfaction with the investigation, claiming his death was being covered up.
They also want to know the “real story” behind his death plunge at the MACC office here on April 6 — the second such case in an anti-graft office.
“We know that Ahmad Sarbaini fell from a high place but what caused him to fall? What caused his death?” a family member, who declined to be named, asked today.
“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.
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 threatened to 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.
