KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 — The High Court here today dismissed the civil suit by the family of Customs director Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over his death while in their custody.
Judge Datuk Kamaludin Md Said also ordered the family to pay RM10,000 in costs to agency.
“They failed to prove their case of unlawful arrest and detention, misfeasance in public office and negligence,” lawyer representing MACC Zureen Elina Mohd Dom said.
Lawyer Razlan Hadri Zukelfi, who represented Ahmad Sarbaini’s family, said they were disappointed but respected today’s ruling.
“The family and I will discuss to see if we will bring this to the Court of Appeal, but for now, we have not decided,” he said.
Sarbaini, 56, a Selangor Customs assistant director, was found dead on the first floor of the Kuala Lumpur MACC building in Jalan Cochrane on April 6, 2011.
The late Customs officer’s widow, Masiah@Maziah Manap, 53, and son Shahril Ahmad Sarbaini, 30, insisted in April last year that his death was not an accident as ruled by a coroner but an “unlawful killing”, when they filed the lawsuit.
Sarbaini had been a witness in the high-profile raid on the Customs Department carried out by MACC back in 2011.
He had been left alone in an interview room at the office in Jalan Cochrane here, before being discovered in a pool of his own blood at a badminton court several floors down.
A coroner’s inquest later found his death to be an accident, after ruling out suicide and foul play.
Coroner Aizatul Akmal Maharani judged that Ahmad Sarbaini’s mental state had been affected by the guilt of his previous admission to bribery.
The verdict was rejected by Sarbaini’s family, who have called on Putrajaya to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into his death.
