The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today dismissed the suit filed by the family of late customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad, who died at the Federal Territory Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) premises at Jalan Cochrane four years ago.

 

On the balance of probabilities, the case of the plaintiffs is untenable, High Court judge Kamaludin Md Said ruled. 

 

"They failed to prove their case on unlawful arrest, detention, misfeasance in public office and abuse of power."

 

The court dismissed the claim with RM10,000 costs.

However, Justice Kamaludin ruled that Sarbaini ( photo ) was under the care and control of the MACC at the time of his demise.

 

In an immediate reaction, Razlan Hadri Zulkifli, the lawyer for Sarbaini’s wife Maziah Manap and son Shahril Ahmad Sarbaini, said he will take further instructions from his clients as they have 30 days from today to appeal against the decision.

 

Maziah was too distraught to talk to reporters, saying, "I hope you understand,” as she was surrounded by family members and friends.

CCTV recording accidentally deleted

Sarbaini's death was ruled as misadventure by an inquest that followed. During the course of the inquest and this civil case, the court was told there was a CCTV recording, but it had been accidentally deleted by the MACC security.

The senior Customs officer fell to his death on April 6, 2011, at the MACC's Federal Territory headquarters on Jalan Cochrane.

The 56-year-old was under investigation for alleged graft and money laundering in an operation mounted by the MACC, the Inland Revenue Board, Customs Department and Bank Negara in Penang, Johor, Selangor and Pahang.

Justice Kamaludin agreed that Sarbaini was under the custody of the MACC, based on the decision in Teoh Beng Hock's case before the Court of Appeal, where the family members of the DAP political aide appealed on the inquest findings.

However, he contrasted the position from Teoh's case and the death in police custody of A Kugan, as there were marks of injury in the two.

“In Teoh's case, there were signs of injury on the neck while in Kugan's case there were multiple injuries to the back. In this case, the deceased died due to head injuries by falling from the third floor of the MACC building,” he said.

Justice Kamaludin added that in this case, there were no signs of injury on the deceased, besides the head injuries.

No criminal element

He said Sarbaini came to the MACC to retract his statement and had waited for the investigating officer on the third floor of the interrogation room and there was no danger when he was left behind.

The judge said from the evidence, there was no criminal element involved.

“An MACC witness said he went looking for Sarbaini in the interrogation room,m only to find the window to the interrogation room to be wide open. Upon looking down, he saw Sarbaini's body in the badminton hall next to the building.

“There is insufficient evidence to support the plaintiffs' evidence of criminal element. The plaintiffs failed to prove allegations that the deceased was abused ( dianiayai ), was pushed or that he was threatened,” Justice Kamaludin said.

He also ruled out the plaintiffs' claim of negligence in the suit, saying there was no proof of such evidence.

“The action of the deceased to go out of the room through the window is classified by the coroner as death by misadventure and not due to negligence," the judge added.

The court also ruled out any bad intention on the part by the MACC resulting in Sarbaini's death.

MACC and the government were represented by Kamal Azira Hassan and Zurina Md Dom.