A senior Customs officer at Wisma Kastam in Northport in Port Klang is linked to the death of his colleague Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, a DAP parliamentarian claimed today.

pakatan cij parliament pc 131108 charles santiagoKlang MP Charles Santiago (left) said forwarding agents who picketed against the use of a new import form system yesterday had raised this allegation, saying Ahmad Sarbani was "well-liked" among them.

About 800 forwarding agents protested delays in documentation processes after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested 62 Customs officers, 47 of them from Northport, in nationwide raids last week.

Ahmad Sarbani, an assistant director with the Selangor Customs Department, was among the 62 arrested on April 1 in the operation in Penang, Johor, Selangor and Pahang that also included the Inland Revenue Board, Customs Department and Bank Negara.

He had fallen to his death from the third floor of the Kuala Lumpur MACC headquarters building on Jalan Cochrane yesterday.

NONE"It's a big issue because it involves a huge cost, for ships are waiting at the port and can't unload... they can't move on to Singapore or Indonesia if the documents are not processed.

"So that has become a cost... and it's an international problem now because shipowners believe there is a massive strike here and that's the reason for the delayed (documentation) process," Santiago said.

The forwarding agents would be lodging a report with the MACC in Shah Alam over the “senior officer”, he added, but decline to name the person.

Ahmad Sarbani, 56, had returned to the MACC office yesterday morning despite having given his statement earlier last week in relation to an investigation into billions of ringgit in unpaid taxes by Customs officers.

Federal Territory police chief Zulkifli Abdullah has classified the case as sudden death and a special task force had been set up to investigate the death.