MACC, Customs union agree to ceasefire over Sarbaini death

PUTRAJAYA, April 12 — Customs officers backed down today from earlier demands that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) clear Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed from alleged suicide after agreeing with the anti-graft body to allow investigations to proceed without any interference.

At a joint press conference after a two-hour meeting, MACC chief Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohamed (picture) said the police and its own internal inquiry would “be allowed to conduct their investigations professionally”.

“All of us agreed that we should let the authorities do their work and find the truth,” he added at the press conference with Peninsular Malaysia Customs Union president Ibrahim Ahmad.

Ibrahim said his union was satisfied with the meeting after the MACC “freed us from the RM108 billion figure which now clears our name,” referring to the huge sum that had been mentioned in relation to the Customs graft swoop in which Ahmad Sarbaini was arrested.

The union had said on Friday that it wanted the MACC to explain the assistant director’s death at its Federal Territory office in Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and clear his name as a suicide case.

“We hope that Sarbaini’s name will be cleared from the word suicide,” Ibrahim had said after a two-hour meeting together with Cuepacs, the umbrella organisation for civil servants.

Also present at today’s meeting were Cuepacs president Omar Osman and Association of Senior Customs Officers deputy president Iskandar Jaafar.

Police have so far recorded the statements of 20 people, including Ahmad Sarbaini’s family members, MACC and Customs staff.

They are also analysing closed-circuit television footage from the MACC office in Cheras as well as the mobile phone belonging to the senior Customs officer.

MACC investigations director Datuk Mustafar Ali had told reporters on the day of Ahmad Sarbaini’s death that he had returned to the MACC building at 8.26am 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 Saturday.

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 Sarbani’s body was later found on the badminton court on the first floor, but friends who visited the mortuary where his body was kept said it was impossible that the 56-year-old Customs assistant director had committed suicide over the MACC investigations.

Abu Kassim also said that the Customs sting was referred to as “Operasi 3b” as the objective of the operation was to recover up to RM3 billion in unpaid Customs revenue to the government.

He clarified that the RM108 billion tag being talked about was a figure from the Finance Ministry relating to illicit money outflows and not specific to abuse of power within the Customs itself.