Pathologist says Sarbaini slipped and fell
By Melissa Chi, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — The lead forensic pathologist in the death of Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed told the inquest today that the Customs officer had slipped and fell to his death at the offices of the national graftbusters.
Ahmad Sarbaini, the Selangor Customs assistant director, is believed to have fallen from the third floor pantry of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office in Jalan Cochrane here on April 6 and landed on the badminton court on the first floor.
Professor Dr Shahrom Abd Wahid, 54, is the lead forensic pathologist for the case and a forensic pathology lecturer at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He told the court he was involved in the overall supervision of the autopsy and crime scene investigations.
“The re-enactment by the stuntman showed it was probable for the deceased person to have fallen backward when his right foot slipped from the window lower ledge and the left foot reactively kicked the edge of the ledge,” he said in the post-mortem report, citing a diagonal white paint mark on Ahmad Sarbaini’s left shoe sole.
He then told lawyer for Ahmad Sarbaini’s family, Awtar Singh, that the deceased had kicked his left foot against ledge as a defence mechanism when he went off balance.
Shahrom had performed the second autopsy on Ahmad Sarbaini on April 7, 24 hours after the first one.
He explained that the second autopsy was done “to allow detection of any bruises which may become clearer in appearance after 24 hours of death”.
Based on the evidence found, the autopsy and the re-enactment, Shahrom ruled out the possibility of homicide, suicide, and natural death.
“The image visualisation showed that the deceased person landed on his right knees then left knee, almost simultaneously, followed by the right elbow, left wrist, forehead and facial part of the head,” he told the court.
Shahrom said that severe head injury and skull fractures as well as positional asphyxia may have caused the rapid death of the deceased.
He explained positional asphyxia as a condition where there was a lack of oxygen intake due to nose and mouth obstructed by fluid blood.
Shahrom said he found no suspicious marks, scratches or injuries on the limbs, body and head, other than those due to the fall.
