Statutory Declaration by Charles Suresh Morais
I, Charles Suresh Morais (NRIC No.620427-10-5707), a Malaysian citizen of full age and residing at 4789 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Suite A 137, Atlanta, Georgia 3038, USA do hereby solemnly and sincerely declare and state as follows:
1. I am one of four siblings and the younger brother of Anthony Kevin Morais (Kevin), now deceased. My other brothers are David Ramesh Morais (David) and Richard Dilaan Morais (Richard). They are both younger than me. I have no sisters.
2. All four siblings were born in Kuala Lumpur. My father was the Deputy Director (Licensing) RTM. When I was about 10 years old my father was posted to Ipoh and so the whole family moved there. My mother and father lived in Ipoh until they passed away. Before my father’s posting to Ipoh, he had been transferred to Kluang and Malacca for 3 year stints each.
3. I attended the Anderson School in Ipoh until I finished Form 5. After that I was sent to India to do a pre-university course at the Christ College Bangalore. After completing my pre-university course, I attended the University of South Alabama, USA, to pursue a degree in computer Science and Business Management. That was in 1984. I have remained in the USA since.
4. I am now a successful businessman in Hotel investments in the USA and also in IT. I live in Atlanta, USA, and I have one son. I am divorced from my wife.
5. I have always been very close to Kevin, more so than Richard and David. I used to return to Ipoh from time to time from the USA to visit my parents and Kevin. Richard and David lived in Kuala Lumpur. Kevin started off as a Magistrate in Sungai Siput in the 1980’s after he had completed his chambering with a firm of solicitors in Ipoh.
6. Kevin was promoted from a Magistrate to the Registrar of the Ipoh High Court where he remained until about the year 2000, after my mother passed away. He was then transferred to Kuala Lumpur as the Deputy Registrar of the Kuala Lumpur High Court, I believe. My father had passed away in 1990. Kevin stayed with my mother whilst he was in Perak.
7. I used to communicate with Kevin very often by phone and email. He used to confide in me as he felt closer to me than my other brothers.
8. Kevin had studied law in London at the Holborn Law Tutors in the early 1980’s. For a while he lived with our cousin, Kenneth Shankar (aka Jamie), who was a businessman there. After that he shared an apartment with a couple of my other cousins.
9. Kevin often used to visit one of my other distant relatives, Helen Lobo, who was a nurse working in London and who had a family there. Helen looked after Kevin’s welfare and even paid some of his tuition and living expenses. Helen was from Kluang. She was a student at the convent in Kluang and my mother was her teacher in Form 5. Because Helen came from a large family in cramped living conditions, my mother took her into our home when we lived in Kluang.
10. Helen had a younger brother called Jibby. He lives in New Zealand now. I knew Jibby very well. He was about 2 years older than Kevin. He also used to stay with us in Kluang and used to babysit us when we were in primary school. Kevin and I were very close to both Helen and Jibby. They used to visit us often after we moved to Malacca and Ipoh. We considered them part of our family.
11. When Kevin was a Magistrate in Sungai Siput, Richard was arrested a couple of times for gang related activities. My mother had to bail him out. Richard was even arrested in Kuala Lumpur after that for other criminal activities. My mother kept all this from Kevin as she was worried he would become angry if he knew what Richard had been getting up to.
12. Sometime after that, my mother discovered that Richard had borrowed money from one of her friends in Ipoh to fund his trip to Hong Kong where he said he wanted to take music lessons. Unfortunately Richard did not take up music lessons but worked in a hotel in Hong Kong instead. He got married to a Philippina girl but got into trouble again and was deported after being arrested, charged and jailed. My mother had to pay to secure his release from the police. Richard is prohibited from returning to Hong Kong by the authorities there. This occurred in about 2004.
13. I told Kevin what Richard had been up to after his return from Hong Kong. He was very angry and distanced himself from Richard. Kevin had never spoken to Richard since 2004 up until his demise in September 2015.
14. Richard thereafter set up a business in Kuala Lumpur selling pianos in Bukit Bintang and Ampang. He got into financial trouble constantly and had asked me to bail him out twice, which I did. Richard has unfortunately become associated with underworld characters in Kuala Lumpur and has become involved in criminal activities. He constantly borrows money from people I know and does not repay these loans. The police have arrested him a number of times for a variety of allegations ranging from criminal intimidation to sexual misconduct.
15. Sometime in September 2013, I was in Atlanta at a dinner function when I received a call from Kevin who was very distraught. Kevin told me that he had received a telephone call from the police informing him the IGP wanted to see him the next day. Kevin at this stage was a DPP with the MACC or AG’s Chambers. He was told that Richard had been seen leaving the scene of the Najadi murder at Bukit Ceylon in July 2013 and the IGP wanted to know what Kevin knew about this. Kevin informed the IGP that he had not been in contact with Richard since 2004 and knew nothing of this.
16. At the same time Kevin had disassociated himself from Richard in 2004, he did the same with David. This was because David and Kevin had a confrontation over some personal issue which led to their estrangement. Therefore Kevin had not communicated with both Richard and David from 2004 until his demise in September 2015.
17. From 2004 until 2015, the only sibling Kevin communicated with was me. We became very close during this period, having lost both our parents and being isolated from Richard and David.
18. For 2 years prior to his death, Kevin used to phone me in the USA at least 2-3 times a month and we used to correspond by email constantly. He used to share his work issues with me and his trips to London and other places. He also discussed current cases he was handling and the problems he was facing in prosecuting some of them.
19. About 5 months before his demise, Kevin told me he was retiring from Government Service and wanted to move to London, spending 6 months there and 6 months in Malaysia. His intention was to teach or consult. He had been bequeathed an apartment in London and so he had a permanent residence there.
20. Kevin was in the habit of keeping me informed every time he travelled overseas and when he returned to Malaysia. This was by email and by phone. He insisted I knew his whereabouts at all times.
21. I was concerned that Kevin was a defendant in a civil suit brought against him by a lawyer known as Rosli Dahlan. I was worried he would not be able to afford to pay for good legal representation and I had offered to pay this for him. He declined my offer as he said the Attorney General and he had good legal representation already and not to waste my money.
22. Two to three months before Kevin’s demise, he told me that he was working on a case involving The Prime Minister and his wife. He said the Prime Minister was a terrible guy but that his wife was worse. He actually used the words ‘kolata ala’. These were Malayalam words and translated into English mean ‘a person up to no good’. He told me his phone might be tapped and to be careful what I said. That is why half of our conversations were usually in Malayalam.
23. In early August 2015, Kevin went to London. He told me he was going to renovate the apartment he had been bequeathed, situated in Bromley, Kent. He was there from the 3rd August to the 15th August. He told me he had to get out of Malaysia for a while because his second attempt to retire from the Government Service had been rejected and he was feeling the pressure of the work he was involved in at that time.
24. He emailed me when he got back from London after the 15th August with photographs of the apartment. He then called me and asked me if I would come back to Malaysia as soon as possible and kept telling me his phone was tapped. He sounded very depressed. He said he would courier something to me and to watch out for it as he wanted me to keep it in safe custody.
25. This was the last call I received from Kevin and was about a week before he went missing.
26. On Saturday the 5th September, I received an email from a friend in Kuala Lumpur informing me Kevin had been missing since the day before. I immediately tried reaching the Attorney General’s Chambers in Putra Jaya and was eventually referred to a Chinese lady who knew that Kevin and I were very close. She had served in Ipoh as a Sessions Court Judge. Her name is Alice Loke. She told me that everyone was looking for Kevin.
27. I then called Tan Sri Gani Patail on his mobile phone, (which I had obtained from a reporter). He reassured me that they were looking for Kevin and that they would find him. Tan Sri Gani Patail sent me an sms after that which read “thank you very much, I will ensure that the authorities will keep you posted”. This was on the 7th September 2015. This sms is still stored in my mobile phone.
28. As I had not received an update, I sent Tan Sri Gani Patail another sms on the 12th and 13th September 2015 pleading with him for his help to find Kevin and he responded on the 13th saying “please remain calm, I am not working there anymore. What I have been told is that the police are working relentlessly on the matter”.
29. I responded in an sms “I understand you are not working there. Unfortunately I have minimum confidence in the police. 4 days before they checked the CCTV cameras. However I thank you for responding. I won’t trouble you anymore”.
30. When I first sent the sms to Tan Sri Gani Patail, I had no idea he had been dismissed as the Attorney General. I only realized this later.
31. When I heard that Kevin’s body had been found on the 16 September 2015, I booked a flight from Atlanta to New York and then to Singapore, arriving on or about the 23rd September. I was picked up from the Changi airport by family members and driven straight to the mortuary at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
32. I met David and Richard at the mortuary. They had arranged the funeral at the Nirvana Memorial Centre and had a car and a hearse ready. I met with the two Malay lady pathologists who informed me they were the ones who conducted the post mortem on Kevin’s body with a Chinese man who said he was the Head of the Pathology Department. They told me to go ahead and claim the body but that the cause of death was as yet unknown. I refused to claim the body as I needed to know the cause of death.
33. Richard did not agree with me and wanted to leave with Kevin’s body immediately and proceeded to make a fuss. Inspector Zikri from the Sentul Police Station, who was at the mortuary, told Richard to calm down because he was getting mad that I wasn’t claiming the body. I then suspected something fishy was going on with Richard. David was there but he didn’t offer any objections to my refusal to claim the body.
34. Eventually we all left for the Nirvana Memorial Centre as the funeral arrangements had been set up there for the next few days. Kevin’s body remained in the mortuary at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
35. I had not seen Richard for about 14 years prior to seeing him at the mortuary that day. Neither had Kevin. I was therefore surprised that Richard was apparently behaving as if he was very close to Kevin and was portraying a very unusual concern to expedite the funeral and cremation of Kevin’s remains.
36. We eventually conducted funeral rights for Kevin and held Mass for him at a Church in Shah Alam. Many people paid their respects and the Solicitor General gave her eulogy.
37. Unfortunately the funeral was marred by the bad behaviour of Richard when he claimed that he was entitled to the money in the donation box. David tried to stop him taking it and a fight ensued between them in front of at least 100 people. I in fact had to break up the fight myself. This was witnessed by numerous people including the owner of the Nirvana Memorial Centre himself, Dato Freddy.
38. I was paid for the balance due for the funeral arrangements as both Richard and David were not in a financial position to do so. My cousin Jamie from London had already paid the initial bill.
39. After the funeral service, I began to investigate a report I had come across briefly, which had been posted by Clare Rewcastle-Brown (who is responsible for the Sarawak Report website). This report appeared on the 30th July 2015. Two draft criminal charge sheets had been attached to this report. After having looked at these draft charge sheets once again, I noticed that one of them was amended and initialled. After studying that particular draft charge sheet in detail, I noticed that the initial next to the amendment made was that of my brother, Kevin. I am familiar with his signature and his initials.
Annexed hereto as TAB-1 is a copy of the Draft Charge Sheet with Kevin’s initial.
40. I therefore contacted Clare Rewcastle by phone and enquired as to where she obtained these charge sheets. She informed me they had been sent to her via email, anonymously on the 29th July 2015. I asked her for that anonymous email and she obliged by forwarding the same to me.
Annexed hereto as TAB-2 is the email dated 29.07.2015 forwarded to me by Clare Rewcastle.
41. Upon closer scrutiny of that email, I noticed the senders email address as ‘[email protected]’. I have checked with this server to find out details of the owner of this address but this is blocked due to anonymity provided by the server as far as its users are concerned.
42. I am convinced by the circumstances narrated above that this email came from Kevin for 5 reasons:
i. The use of the name ‘jibby’ as this is the name of our old babysitter as explained above, and the details of the contents of the email in making reference to the removal of Gani Patail as the Attorney General two days prior to the date of this email.
ii. Kevin was working directly under the Attorney General at that time and would have been privy to the type of information as appear in the draft charge sheets.
iii. Kevin had told me he was working on matters connected to the Prime Minister.
iv. Another special task force personnel from the Attorney General’s chambers, one Jessica Gurmeet Kaur, who was apparently also working on various financial scandals with Kevin at the same time, was arrested on the 31st July 2015. Kevin had mentioned he was working with her during some of the phone calls he made to me but that her portfolio was in respect of corruption charges being investigated against Rosmah Mansor.
v. Kevin’s initials next to the amendment made on the charge sheet.
43. Clare Rewcastle informed me that she had received further emails from ‘jibby@ anonymousspeech.com’ subsequent to the 29th July 2015 but that she had trouble locating them due to a server crash which has prevented access. However, she recalls that some of the subsequent emails read as follows:
“I had been in Britain for a long time and I know how things work there”
“Clare I will try my best to get the documents out of the country. We have another meeting tomorrow. Police aggressive in finding sources of leak….”
44. Clare also told me that in other emails received, she recalled the sender used words such as “No shit Sherlock” and “Blardy”. These were words Kevin used all the time.
45. In view of the suspicious circumstances surrounding the abduction of Kevin, I felt it imperative that a second post mortem be conducted on his body.
46. I therefore instructed my lawyer, Americk Sidhu, to write to all concerned parties informing them of my wish and that in the interim, Kevin’s body was to be preserved at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur mortuary.
47. I was present at the Kuala Lumpur Magistrates Court on the 28th September 2015 when the charges against the persons accused of murdering Kevin were read out. Present at Court were Manoj Kurup for the prosecution with Dato Abdul Razak. My lawyer Americk Sidhu appeared as my watching brief. I was present when Americk Sidhu asked Manoj Kurup whether the Attorney General’s Chambers would have any objections to a second post mortem being carried out on Kevin’s body. Manoj Kurup confirmed they would have no objections.
48. My lawyer then followed up with a letter to the AG’s Chambers on the 7th October 2015, confirming this.
Annexed hereto as TAB-3 is a copy of a letter written by my lawyers to the AG’s Department dated 07.10.2015.
49. On the 15th October 2015, my lawyers sent a letter to the Head of the Department of Pathology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur asking for the post mortem report and asking for consent to conduct a second post mortem on Kevin’s remains. In the interim, an assurance was sought that Kevin’s body would be preserved and kept in the mortuary.
Annexed hereto as TAB-4 is a copy of my lawyer’s letter to the Head of the Pathology Department HKL dated 15.10.2015.
50. My lawyers received a reply to this letter on the 19th October 2015 asking that we make this specific request to the ‘Dato Pengarah Hospital Kuala Lumpur’ instead, which my lawyers did on the 21st October 2015. No response has been received to date.
Annexed hereto as TAB-5 is the letter from the Jabatan Patologi HKL dated 19.10.2015 and my lawyers reply dated 21.10.2015
51. In the meantime, Richard had intimated he was intending to claim Kevin’s body and cremate it. It was for this reason I instructed my lawyers to write to Richard’s lawyers giving them notice that their client was not to claim the body pending the completion of a second autopsy. No response to this letter has been received to date.
Annexed hereto as TAB-6 is my lawyer’s letter to Messrs Aru & Co dated 09.11.2015
52. I was then informed by the police (Inspector Zikri), that I was to attend the Sentul Police Station at 10.00 a.m. on the 12th November 2015, on my own and without my lawyer, for a meeting. I informed my lawyer, Americk Sidhu who suggested he accompany me, which he did.
53. Present at this meeting were myself, my lawyer, Americk Sidhu, Richard, his lawyers Dato Arumugam and Datin Freda Gonzales, David and his lawyer Sabry Kassim, Dato Abdul Razak, Q.E. Chan, Muhammad Izzat Faudan and Ishak from the Attorney General’s Chambers, Dr. Ahmad Hafzam Hasni and Dr. Nurliza bte Abdullah from the Pathology Department of the Hospital Kuala Lumpur and ASP Wan Abdullah Wan Said and Inspector Zikri from the Sentul Police Station.
54. Dr. Nurliza proceeded to inform all parties present that the results of the post-mortem conducted by herself and Dr. Ahmad Harizat on the 16th September 2015 had confirmed that the “Probable” cause of death was due to “asphyxiation (suffocation)” and that:
i. The post mortem report had not been released pending receipt of the DNA results, the toxicology report and the histopathology report.
ii. That the body was in a moderate stage of decomposition.
iii. That the time of death had not been ascertained.
55. Dr. Nurliza proceeded to explain that the detailed post mortem report could not be divulged as there was a case pending trial at the High Court. When my lawyer requested a copy of the death certificate, Dr. Nurliza said this could not be issued without a burial permit and the only way to get a burial permit was to claim the body.
56. My lawyer then asked Dr. Nurliza whether it would be alright to keep Kevin’s body in the HKL mortuary pending a second post mortem but she replied that it was a Standard Operating Procedure of the Hospital that unless a body was claimed in 2 weeks, it would be disposed of, which I found to be rather strange.
57. I got the impression Dr. Nurliza was pressuring us in removing Kevin’s body from the HKL mortuary. She was very adamant.
58. I also found it strange that Dr. Nurliza was claiming to have performed the autopsy on Kevin’s body but when I had attended the mortuary to claim Kevin’s body on the 23rd September 2015, there were 2 Malay ladies and a Chinese man who claimed they had actually performed the autopsy themselves. Dr. Nurliza was not there.
59. My lawyer then asked Dato Abdul Razak of the Attorney General’s Chambers whether we could be supplied with a copy of the post mortem report before the next mention date of the charges brought against the accused in Court. Dato Abdul Razak informed us that he would discuss this with the Attorney General and revert to us.
60. My lawyer thereafter received a call from one Mabel Muttiah, the Special Officer to the Attorney General, inviting my lawyer and I to attend the Attorney General’s Office at 11.30 a.m. on the 17th November 2015 to sight the post mortem report only, which we did.
61. At this meeting Dato Abdul Razak informed us that if we wanted a second post mortem conducted on Kevin’s remains, it was a Standard Operating Procedure of the Attorney General’s Chambers that we were to make a formal application to Court for the relevant Order, but the that AGC would have no objections.
62. My lawyer thereafter prepared an Originating Summons and an affidavit-in-support which I duly affirmed and had attested on the 23rd November 2015. My lawyer filed the same in Court immediately.
Annexed hereto as TAB-7 is the sealed copy of the Originating Summons and Affidavit-in-Support filed on the 23.11.2015.
63. My lawyer had also been in touch with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Melbourne, Australia and received confirmation that a Professor Stephen Cordner was prepared to fly to Kuala Lumpur to perform a second post mortem on Kevin’s remains.
64. However, I received information in the evening of the 23rd November 2015 that Richard had claimed Kevin’s body at 11.30 a.m. that very same day and had removed it from the HKL mortuary.
Annexed hereto as TAB-8 is a copy of a police report lodged by Richard and dated 23.11.2015
65. I have reason to believe that Richard has been instigated by certain personalities to claim and dispose of Kevin’s body before a second post mortem could be conducted. I have evidence in the form of an sms received by my brother David from an officer at the Attorney General’s Chambers which was sent to David on or about the 15th November 2015 and which reads as follows:
“Dearest darling Bro David. Just received message from Bro Richard. He wants to remove Kev’s remain and give a decent burial if time permits tomorrow. He asked me to find out from you if you would join him in getting the remains of Kev fr the mortuary. Thank you”.
66. The contents of the above sms appear to indicate that there was a conspiracy to dispose of Kevin’s remains without my knowledge as no mention of my name has been made in that message.
67. This is despite the numerous letters, meetings and requests made to all concerned parties that I was intent on having a second post mortem done. This was common knowledge at the AGC and an understanding between us had been reached, with the filing of an application to Court as agreed. It is therefore very surprising that an officer of that same department appears to be trying to circumvent this understanding by clandestine means.
68. I firmly believe that Richard has been approached by persons interested in covering up the murder of my brother Kevin. He has been offered incentives to claim Kevin’s remains and to cremate them post haste in order to destroy evidence which a second post mortem may have revealed.
69. Richard is a crook by nature and therefore I would not put it past him to accept a reward for doing this. He does not realize he has possibly committed an offence under section 201 of the Penal Code for causing the disappearance of evidence of an offence committed, to screen the actual offender (s), which is punishable upon conviction with a sentence of up to 7 years in jail and a fine.
70. I am convinced that Kevin knew something was going to happen to him. I could sense this from the conversations I had with him over the phone shortly before he was abducted.
71. This perhaps explains why he felt it necessary to travel to London on the 3rd August 2015 and whilst there, to see solicitors who drew up a Will for him dated 13th August 2015 in which he specifically bequeathed his apartment to a dear friend of his. Why do this when it had always been his intention to retire to London and live in that apartment?
72. I am in possession of a pen drive Kevin sent to me by courier before he died, as I mentioned above. It is in safe custody in the USA with someone who has instructions to release it publically should anything untoward happen to me for swearing this statutory declaration. The contents of this pen drive clearly and unequivocally reveal the investigations Kevin had been tasked with just before his untimely death which implicate certain personalities who currently walk the corridors of power in Malaysia.
73. I do not for one moment believe Kevin was killed because he was prosecuting a Government Pathologist for corruption. This accused doctor is intelligent enough to realize that getting rid of the DPP prosecuting his case will not emasculate the charge he is facing for the simple reason there are many other DPPs who would take over that prosecution.
74. Kevin was killed for other reasons and I believe these other motives were due to the fact that he knew too much about the criminal acts of those high up in the echelons of power in Malaysia and he needed to be silenced because of that.
75. I am very surprised that the authorities at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur and the police appear to have been complicit in allowing Kevin’s body to be removed from the mortuary by Richard when they were both fully aware that I wanted a second post mortem to be conducted. I believe this clearly demonstrates mala fides on their respective parts in their efforts to prevent this second post mortem taking place.
And I solemnly make this declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1960
Subscribed and solemnly declared by )
the abovenamed Charles Suresh Morais )
at Kuala Lumpur this day of 2015 )
