As Sarbani's friends rule out suicide, MACC suspends 2 officers

In a move to appease red-hot public anger, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said it has suspended two officers in relation to the death of Selangor Customs assistant director Ahmad Sarbani.

But it may be a little too little, a little too late. Friends of Sarbani are insistent it could not have been suicide.

Even so, the MACC is hoping to buy a bit of time as it tries to salvage the tatters of a shattered image following the second mystery death at its premises in as many years.

“Two MACC officers have been suspended for the purposes of investigation because they are said to have violated orders related to the handling of witnesses or customers in MACC premises, where the officers are said to have failed to accompany witnesses or customers at all times while they are in MACC premises,” said the MACC in a statement out on Thursday.

“These suspensions are to assist internal investigations related to this matter and the suspensions will last until an internal probe is completed."

Sarbani's body was found sprawled in a pool of blood on the badminton court in the MACC building at Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. According to the MACC, he had gone there on his own volition at 8.26am. He was taken to the investigating officer's room at 9.30am, accompanied by an MACC staff as the investigator was not there.

The MACC staff left the room at 10.15am to look for the investigating officer and when he returned a few minutes later, Sarbani was missing. A search then found his body on the first floor badminton court. He is believed to have fallen to his death from a third floor window.

Suicide from the third floor?

Sarbani's friend have insisted that he could not have committed suicide. Many also pointed out that if it was a natural reflex to look for the top or a much higher floor to jump from if one wanted to commit suicide.

"Third floor is not that high. Sometimes, if you are lucky you can survive. Anyway he would have to be really stressed out if he just jumped like that. We cannot believe it because how can he be so stressed when he was waiting since 8.30 am as the MACC says. Unless, they stressed him up," one of his friends told Malaysia Chronicleon the condition of annonymity.

"Also, he was remanded last week and freed on bail on Saturday. If he was worried about disgrace, why didn't he kill himself on that day itself? Why did he wait so many days? And he is not the only one. So many other officers were also caught. The logic doesn't jive."

Kuala Lumpur police chief Zullkifli Abdullah has confirmed that Sarbani has been classified as sudden death and initial investigations found injuries to the head of the victim.

2 years after Beng Hock, still no CCTV

Meanwhile, Ramon Navaratnam, the former chairman of the MACC Corruption Prevention Panel, expressed regret that the commission did not install closed-circuit TV although it has been nearly two years since the MACC was faulted after Selangor political aide died after overnight interrogation at the Shah Alam headquarters.

"I am sure cost is not the issue here. After such a bad experience with Teoh, I would have expected the first directive to go out was that there must cameras installed at the corridors and rooms," Ramon told Malaysia Chronicle.

He urged the federal government to hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Sarbani's death.

Sarbani had been hauled up as part of a money-laundering probe that the MACC claims involved billions of ringgit.

While MACC has made numerous arrests and exposed several officers for having illicit stashes of cash and gold bars in their bank accounts and homes, it has failed to arrest any politician or top-tiered leader, whose influence would surely be needed for any embezzlement of such scale to have thrived.

- Malaysia Chronicle