Head injuries, is that all? But did Sarbani jump or was he pushed?

Kuala Lumpur police chief Zulkifli Abdullah said that the Customs Officer, Ahmad Sarbani who was found on the badminton court on the first floor of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters on 6 April had died from head injuries resulting from a fall from a high place.

The Malaysian government is doing, not just the family of Ahmad Sarbani a disservice, but it is also denying all Malaysians a right to the truth.

Between the PDRM and the MACC, and perhaps the Malaysian government, who can ordinary Malaysians trust? Where can they go to seek justice?

Few people believe that Ahmad Sarbani commited suicide, although that is the impression the authorities is cultivating.

They tried that tactic with Teoh Beng Hock with a last minute submission of a “suicide note” and tried to make psychiatric analyses from members of his family and his landlady that Teoh was contemplating suicide.

Last October, a retired income tax officer was summoned to the MACC offices in Kuching, and he too mysteriously “jumped off” the building. Ho Hong Chai, 57, worked in the income tax department and might have known something that should not be leaked out. Had he been telling stories as all retirees do over breakfast in the coffee-shop? There has been a lot of attention in Sarawak lately about ill-gotten wealth of various personalities.

On 17^th September 2004, a Sarawak Department of Environment (DOE) investigating officer Rumie Azzan fell from the 9th floor of Sarawak Timber Association (STA) in Kuching. He too had been called in for questioning but “jumped off” the building. We all know about the environmental destruction in Sarawak. Did Rumie know that an individual or a company had violated environmental laws in the state of Sarawak? Was he exterminated too?

Coming back to Ahmad Sarbani, was he silenced because he knew too much?

Ahmad Sarbani fell out of a building, just like the other three people. All had been summoned for questioning at an MACC building or government buildling (Rumie Azzan) and all left in a body bag.

How convenient that Ahmad Sarbani suffered head injuries.

It would be too easy to cover up an earlier head injury, assuming that Ahmad Sarbani had been hit over the head with a blunt instrument, to incapacitate him, to stop him struggling, before being bundled out of a window. Did the pathologists look for the earlier injury if there was one? It is possible to look for it, but only if pathologists wanted to.

What if several people manhandled Ahmad Sarbani and then threw him out of the window? No one has told us if they had found samples of flesh or skin ie someone’s DNA under Ahmad Sarbani’s fingernails. He could have struggled to get free and scratched those who were holding him down. How about his clothes? Were they torn? Were their signs of a struggle in the room even though we were told that Ahmad Sarbani was alone?

What if Ahmad Sarbani had been chloroformed to knock him out? What did the chemical tests in his lungs and nasal cavities reveal?

Or what if he was injected with a drug to knock him out, before he was pushed out? Where is the pin-hole prick on his body and what did his blood tests reveal?

If the impression the MACC wants to create is that Ahmad Sarbani had committed suicide, then what about the fingerprints at the window he is alleged to have thrown himself out of?

Were prints dusted and lifted? Were they just his alone, and possibly the window cleaner’s too, although these could easily be eliminated?

However, if Ahmad Sarbani’s fingerprints showed long lines and scratches on the paintwork near the window as if to indicate that he was struggling to hang onto something, this would indicate a struggle and that he was resisting being thrown out.

Every shoe print leaves a mark. If there were signs of a struggle, there would be scuffle marks left by heels.

But we don’t know if all these were done. There must be more scientific ways to ascertain what might have happened and if Ahmad Sarbani was pushed out or voluntarily jumped out.

We know that the MACC have been uncooperative and have acted menacingly in the past.

We also know that both the police and the pathologists have been slipshod in their methods too.

In the deaths in police custody, the victims’ families had to demand a second autopsy by an independent pathologist to ascertain that the cause of death was not as in the official version, like in Kugan’s case.

For Teoh Beng Hock, it was the Thai pathologist, Dr Pornthip who discovered what our pathologists either did not want to discover or had overlooked.

So how are we to know how thorough the post-mortem has been? Is there collusion amongst the authorities to protect those who could be implicated in this customs scandal?

No one in Malaysia does anything without the go-ahead from someone higher up. If gold bars and millions of ringgits are discovered in a senior customs officer's home, then someone in authority has more to hide.

Ahmad Sarbani probably knew too much and was a danger to them all. His family is now being denied justice and according to Zulkifli, “it is now up to the Attorney-General's Chambers to decide on further action”.

It looks like Ahmad Sarbani’s family will have to go through the same long-winded process that Teoh’s family went through to seek justice.

Someone, somewhere – in either the MACC or the customs complex - knows something. But they're not telling. They are probably too scared to talk in case they are ejected from another window of a high-rise building. It is possible everyone is viewing their colleague with suspicion.

This culture of fear and protectionism has to stop, but who is the brave one to make the first move and divulge all?