Rights activists and politicians today called for a royal inquiry into a second mysterious death at the country's anti-corruption body, which has now suspended two officers.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials found the body of 56-year-old customs deputy director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed outside their offices yesterday after he had come to meet the graft-busters.

NONEAhmad is thought to have fallen from the window of the third floor of the building, where he was waiting to speak to an investigator.

The incident echoed the death in 2009 of political aide Teoh Beng Hock, who also fell from a window at the MACC offices after being questioned as a witness in a corruption case.

Ahmad's death sparked widespread criticism of the MACC, which said he was among 62 customs officials detained on April 1 as part of a major campaign to battle corruption and money laundering.

"We urgently need a Royal Commission of Inquiry to determine not only the cause of death but how two deaths in such a similar manner can happen," Nalini Elunalai, senior coordinator for human rights group Suaram, told AFP.

MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed said in a statement late Wednesday he would carry out a "comprehensive internal investigation" and law minister Nazri Aziz told state media the ongoing corruption probe would continue despite the death.

Revamp of MACC imperative

MACC said in a statement today it had suspended two officers for failing to follow its rules relating to witnesses and suspects.

"The officers appear to have failed in their duties to be with the witness/suspect at all times during the person's presence in the commission's premises," it said.

NONEHowever, Lim Guan Eng, the chief minister of Penang and secretary general of DAP, called for a revamp of the anti-corruption body.

"Despite the promises by MACC that there will be no repeat of such cases... the death of Ahmad shows that MACC had not learnt from the tragic lessons of Teoh's death," he said in a statement.

A royal probe 30-year-old Teoh's death began in February. His family insisted that Teoh, who was due to marry his pregnant fiancee the day after he died, did not kill himself.

A coroner investigating the death in January said there was not enough evidence to prove homicide or suicide but under pressure from Teoh's family and a suspicious public, Prime Minister Najib Razak later announced the royal inquiry.

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