Sex video allegations ‘cruel’, says Customs DG

By Syed Mu’az Syed Putra

September 25, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Customs’ chief said there was no proof its officer was in a sex video recently unveiled by pro-Umno bloggers, adding it’s “cruel” to link it to Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed’s death.

“Although the blog clearly showed sexual acts, until today there has been no further information over who was involved. As such, it cannot be conclusively said that it involved a Customs staff,” Customs director-general Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Yusuf said in an SMS response to The Malaysian Insider.

“Linking the sex act to Sarbaini’s case, which I cannot even see the link, is a cruel act and an irresponsible one, if it seeks to humiliate a person who has died,” he added.

If there was proof, then Khalid said the evidence should be passed to the police, not revealed in public.

Earlier this week, Umno-linked blogs released a video in an apparent attempt to tarnish the reputation of Customs officers ahead of Monday’s verdict in the Sarbaini inquest.

The video — which appears to have been secretly recorded — shows a Malay man engaging in sex with a Caucasian woman in what looks like a hotel room.

Umno-linked blog theunspinners.blogspot.com was the first to release the video, claiming the man in the recording was a Customs officer while suggesting the woman was a Russian prostitute.

The man in the video is not named, but the blogger links the recording, which is titled “Pegawai Kastam Yang Terlampau,” to the senior Customs officer’s death while in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) earlier this year.

The blogger also echoes the position of the MACC and its lawyer Datuk Seri Shafee Muhamad Shafee Abdullah during the Ahmad Sarbaini inquest.

Ahmad Sarbaini, the Selangor Customs assistant director, is believed to have fallen from the third-floor pantry of the MACC office in Jalan Cochrane here on April 6 and landed on the badminton court on the first floor.

Ahmad Sarbaini’s case is seen as high profile as it was the second death involving a person under the MACC’s care.

Teoh Beng Hock Teoh, a DAP political aide, was found dead on July 16, 2009 on the fifth-floor corridor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam after he was questioned overnight by MACC officers at their then-Selangor headquarters.

Shafee had argued during the inquest that there had been no evidence presented to suggest either homicide or foul play, as claimed by Ahmad Sarbaini’s family.

The lawyer said that there was also compelling evidence that Ahmad Sarbaini had climbed out of the window, from which he is believed to have fallen, on his own.