By G Manimaran
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — Peninsular Malaysia Customs Officers Union president Ibrahim Ahmad pleaded with pro-Umno bloggers today to stop linking a sex video to Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed’s death, saying it has brought shame the department and the deceased.
He pointed out the claim was unsubstantiated as the sex video, released earlier this week, bore no proof that it involved a Customs officer.
“Our request - please stop airing clips that shame others this way. Please stop it,” he said, when contacted by The Malaysian Insider.
Ibrahim said the union was upset with the bloggers for airing the clip and particularly for attempting to link it to Sarbaini’s death inquest, which is due for a verdict tomorrow.
The inquest, he pointed out, was to ascertain the circumstances that led to Sarbaini’s death and nothing else.
“The blog’s action has really tarnished the reputation and dignity of Sarbaini’s family, as well as that of the Customs Department,” he complained.
Ibrahim said he was shocked to learn of the blog’s allegations, adding that he had no clue over who was behind it.
Earlier this week, Umno-linked blogs released the sex 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.