Malaysian Deputy Public Prosecutor, Kevin, an angel was abducted, killed and cemented in drum by hired men

KEVIN Morais (pix) was a pure professional, highly ethical, very hardworking and humble. He possessed no ego of any form.

In his work he was very thorough, often asking as many questions as it required to understand every permutation completely.

He took his work as a prosecutor very seriously, often missing meals, and constantly suffered from red watery eyes after reading law throughout the night. He gave his all to the cases he took on. Sometimes, when witnesses turned hostile or the case went awry for reasons beyond Kevin’s control, it affected him deeply. It hurt him to talk about those cases.

Kevin was married to his work.He took on cases others left behind as serving justice was uppermost in his mind. He endeavoured to make sense of every case so he could fight for justice. He had an excellent command of English and loved trading witty puns with the equally competent.

Every time there was a meeting, staff of all rank would line up to shake his hand not because they had to, but because they wanted to shake the hands of Tuan Kevin Morais and greet him. From the gentle bow of their bodies to the deferential nod of their head and the way they extended their hands – like an offering – you could see the tremendous respect they held for him.

Despite being extremely busy, Kevin always had time for those who sought him. He took the time to explain things slowly and made sure they understood perfectly, trying as it may be for those without legal training.

I often told him, “Kevin, these men hold a tremendous measure of respect for you. This is far more valuable than any Datuk or Tan Sri title.” In his usual deprecating manner, he would laugh it off and say, “Oh, Jess, you so flatter me.”

Kevin was a peaceful soul. He always believed in the goodness of people. It never ceased to amaze me how devastated he would be if he found out how bad or guilty they were. In his trademark hand-over-the-mouth gesture, he would keep saying, “No, no please. Not him too!” It amazes me that he was so innocent even after years of practising his profession, choosing to believe good over evil.

I hold him very dear in my heart and not a day has gone by since his disappearance that I’ve not broken down. My constant question to God is, “Why Kevin, God? Why?” My answer is that the angels in heaven wanted him where he belongs. - By JESSICA GURMEET KAUR SIDHU Malaysia



SUBANG JAYA: It was a dead end road hemmed in on one side by a swampy area near a primary school with Sungai Klang at the end of it.

This was where, after almost 13 days since going missing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais was found.

His decomposed body was discovered cemented in an oil drum which was dumped into the swampy area.

A 52-year-old army doctor is be­­lieved to have hired several men to kidnap and kill Kevin, who was involved in the prosecution of a RM700,000 corruption case against him.

After abducting Kevin in Bangsar, it is believed that they killed him by bludgeoning him before stuffing his body in an oil drum and pouring in cement.

They then dumped the drum in the swamp near SKJC Chee Wen here. The road next to the swamp was a dead end and hardly used by motorists.

Federal CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said the doctor was one of seven people detained over the abduction and murder of Kevin.

“We detained four men, two women and a child on Tuesday and one of the suspects led us to this location. We had to send divers into the swamp and they verified that an oil drum was sitting on the river bed,” he said at the scene yesterday.

Comm Mohmad said a forklift took out the drum before personnel from the forensic unit broke it open.

“The body was found in a gunny sack covered with cement,” he said, adding that the body was taken to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for a post-mortem.

Investigators did not open the gunny sack at the scene but it is believed that the body is intact.

Comm Mohmad said in Penang, police had seized a Mitsubishi Triton, a Honda Accord and RM17,100 cash while in Klang Valley, authorities confiscated a Proton Persona, RM15,000 cash and a receipt for the purchase of cement, stones and sand, believed to have been used in the case.

The Mitsubishi Triton was used to ram into Kevin’s government issued Proton Perdana on Sept 4 along Jalan Duta before he was forced into another car. One of the other suspects then drove away in the Proton Perdana.

“This incident was captured on CCTV in Jalan Duta and that led us to the arrests,” he said, adding that po­­lice would be applying for a seven-day remand against the four men.

It is learnt that three more suspects are still at large. The woman and child are believed to be family members of one of the men caught.

“We expect to make more arrests soon,” he said, adding that three of those caught were being investiga­ted for links with gangsterism.

He also denied that the case had any link to the murder of AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi or the 1MDB scandal.

“I would like to convey my deepest condolences to the Morais family,” he said, adding that police believed that the army doctor and the other four men were in cahoots.

“It is possible that the doctor hired these men to abduct and murder Kevin,” he said.

Kevin went missing after leaving his residence in Menara Duta here for work in Putrajaya in a grey Proton Perdana bearing the registration plate WA6264Q.

Kevin must have been killed because of his cases, says brother: We want justice



KUALA LUMPUR: The grieving youngest brother of Deputy Public Prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais has called for justice to be done against those who killed him.

When met outside the Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) mortuary, 49-year-old Datuk Richard Morais said his brother must have been killed because of the cases he was involved in.

“I don’t know what to say. This is not a normal death,” said a teary-eyed Richard after the body of his brother was wheeled into the hospital.

“Everybody knows that this was case-related,” he added.

However, Richard said he did not know what case could have caused the 55-year-old to end up dead.

Inconsolable: Relatives supporting a distraught Richard after he arrived at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur mortuary to identify his brother’s body.

“He was a secretive person. He was very professional about his work. He did not share with his family members. Work came first,” he said.

Richard described his brother as a “strict man” who lived for his job and the law.

Another brother, David Morais, said the post-mortem might take up to two days to determine it was Kevin and what killed him.

“It is unbelievable that this can happen to him. We are just waiting for the post-mortem to be over,” he said.

Related:

Kevin was not just a DPP, he was family too

Army doctor has corruption cases pending

Gani pays his last respects

10 cases of bodies in cement-filled drums since 1998

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The concrete is seen after it was broken out of the drum which contained the body of former ..

Counterfeit medicines and drugs, a public health menance !

Fake medicines may contain toxic substances that include heavy metals (e.g. aresenic) and additives (e.g. steroids). – AFP

The drugs you are taking may be fake

Counterfeit drugs are a booming criminal industry with serious consequences for public health.

Many of us have a strong faith in the power of modern medicine.

We go to the doctor or pharmacist, get the prescribed pills, take them religiously and expect to be cured of whatever ails us.

Oftentimes, this faith is justified, but in an age where fake products abound, have you ever wondered about the authenticity and quality of the drugs that you are ingesting?

According to a 2013 Emerging Markets Health Network report, 3-5% of all medicines being circulated in Malaysia were fakes.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam has also been reported as saying that the ministry had seized some 33,704 unregistered products worth RM43.22mil last year alone.

While this is not high compared to other middle- and low-income countries – for example, the International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group in Indonesia estimates that about one-quarter of medicines on the Indonesian market are fake – it is certainly something to be worried about as it concerns our health.

University of Oxford’s Reader in Tropical Medicine, Prof Dr Paul Newton says that it is difficult to estimate the global size of the problem as there is not enough data.

According to him, there are very few studies, and very few of those are done in a scientifically-rigorous manner, adding that there are certainly hotspots of such problems around the world.

Pfizer Global Security director Mark Robinson shares that the pharmaceutical company sees the highest number of fake drug seizures in Asia, compared to the rest of the world.

But he adds: “That’s because we are targeting (illegal) labs, seizing the drugs before they reach the market.” He observes that in 60 countries around the world, patients went into a legitimate, licensed pharmacy and got counterfeit drugs.

In addition, he notes that the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over half of those who buy drugs online from unverified websites receive counterfeit medicines.

Two types of fake

Fake drugs, also called poor quality drugs, can be divided into two types: counterfeit and substandard.

Prof Newton explains that counterfeit medicines are made by criminals with the intent to deceive patients and healthcare workers for monetary gain.

According to Robinson, these criminals include entrepreneurs, terrorist organisations, drug syndicates and weapons dealers.

 Brick dust, used to hold the fake pill together, as well as boric acid, leaded highway paint to provide the yellow colour, and floor wax to provide shine, were found to be used in the production of counterfeit mefenamic acid by an illegal lab in Colombia. - AFP

They do it, he says, because it is profitable, because they are pretty sure they won’t get caught, and because even if they do get caught, the penalties are very low compared to the amount of money they can make.

The danger of these drugs is that they can vary from not having any active pharmaceutical ingredient to containing toxic materials. (See What’s in your fake drug)

Active pharmaceutical ingredients are the chemical compounds that treat the medical condition.

Unlike counterfeit drugs, substandard drugs are made by the original or licensed manufacturer, but do not conform to the proper standard of quality.

They are “medicines with mistakes”, says Prof Newton.

These medicines occur due to errors in the factories. Sometimes, they can be small errors, and sometimes, they can be large errors, like using the wrong active ingredient, he says.

He opines that this problem is more likely to occur in low-income countries where there is a lack of drug regulation and quality control measures.

However, as with counterfeit drugs, it is difficult to estimate the size of this problem due to the lack of data.

“Not many people are actually looking (for this problem), so we might have an unpleasant surprise,” he says, adding that in terms of public health, substandard medicines are as dangerous as counterfeit drugs.

He adds that some companies are very active in ensuring that their products are good, but, like any human activity, some cut corners and skip the quality control.

Poor regulation

According to the WHO, only one-fifth of its member states have well-developed drug regulation; half have varying levels of regulation and enforcement; and the remaining 30% have either very limited or no drug regulation at all.

In Malaysia, Dr Subramaniam was reported as saying that online drug sales are a particularly hard area to enforce as the Customs Department does not screen packages valued below RM500, due to the very high number of such packages.

“We have asked the Customs Department to screen all packages, and they are trying to do it, but I think it is quite expensive to put such a system in place,” he said after opening the Access to Safe Medicines Training Conference organised by Mediharta Sdn Bhd in January.

Prof Newton was a speaker at the same conference, while Robinson was a speaker at the launch of Pfizer’s anti-counterfeit technology, Patient Authentication for Safety via SMS (PASS), in Malaysia.

According to Robinson, the top three drugs produced by Pfizer that are found to be counterfeited in Malaysia are erectile dysfunction drug, sildenafil; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat pain and inflammation, celecoxib; and hypertension drug, amlodipine.

He adds that it is not only branded drugs that are counterfeited, but also generic drugs that are no longer patented, like the NSAID mefenamic acid.

“People just want to use our good name (to sell fake drugs),” he says.

Prof Newton notes that antibiotics and cardiovascular drugs are also being increasingly counterfeited in South-East Asia.

He adds that it is not only drugs that are counterfeited, but also medical devices like cardiac stents, rapid diagnostic tests and insecticide-treated bed nets – a problem particularly rampant in Africa.

Bad effects

The effects of fake drugs can be felt both on the individual level, as well as on a wider scale. For the patient, taking counterfeit drugs can range from death to developing more serious health complications.

These health complications may be caused by the actual illness being untreated due to a lack of active ingredients in the counterfeit drug, or the drug containing either toxic ingredients or the wrong active ingredients.

The latter will also make it more complicated for doctors to treat the patients, as they might be confused by the incongruent symptoms.

Counterfeit or substandard drugs that contain less active ingredients than required can also cause drug resistance, particularly if they are antibiotics.

Prof Newton adds that consuming fake drugs also ends up incurring more expense on the patients’ part, as they don’t get better and keep on buying more medications.

Patients might also lose faith in the healthcare system, he says. “If you don’t trust the pharmaceutical companies or doctors, you won’t go back and might seek other alternatives.

He notes that fake drugs will also affect genuine pharmaceutical companies, as well as government healthcare systems and non-governmental organisations that inadvertently purchase these drugs.

Both Prof Newton and Robinson hope that governments around the world will take a stronger stance against counterfeit medicines, both in terms of enacting relevant legislation with much stronger penalties for those producing fake drugs, as well as in terms of enforcement.

Patients should also be more careful of what they consume.

For example, signs that a medicine could be fake include an excessively low price, flimsy or unprofessional packaging, and not requiring a doctor’s or pharmacist’s prescription for non-OTC (over the counter) drugs.


An example of the holographic security label for registered Malaysian drugs, which features the hibiscus symbol, serial number and the letters PBKD and DCA. All drug packaging must have this label. – Photo:
An example of the holographic security label for registered Malaysian drugs, which features the hibiscus symbol, serial number and the letters PBKD and DCA. All drug packaging must have this label. – Photo: Health Ministry

In Malaysia, registered drugs also have a holographic security sticker on their packaging.

By Tan Shiow Chin The Star/Asia News Network

Related:

The counterfeit menace - Health 

 

American man looking for wife gets marriage offers instead

PETALING JAYA: After his wife went missing from the airport, American Henry Chuen went to the media hoping to find her. He did not. Instead, he is finding many women interested in taking his wife's place.

The 63-year-old man said many women had e-mailed him with “proposals”, telling him to forget about his wife, and be with them instead.

“More than five women have called me and told me to forget about my wife Lisa.

“They wanted me to take them away to the US and some even promised me that they would make me happy,” he told The Star yesterday.

But Chuen is not about to be tempted. He is more determined than ever to find his wife.

“I am touched that many women had reached out to me but my main goal is to find my wife.

“We made a vow of marriage...to me, that is one of the most sacred things in the world,” he said.

Chuen had previously sought the public's help to locate his wife Lisa Cheong Lai Har, 45, who had gone missing from KLIA just as they were to return to the United States in November last year.

Chuen met Cheong, an administrative assistant in a private college, through an online matchmaking website in early 2008.

They finally met in Kuala Lumpur after six months of online correspondence. On May 31, 2009, they married in Las Vegas and settled in San Francisco.

The couple last returned to Malaysia in September to visit Cheong's dying father in Ipoh.

Chuen is offering a reward for any information on Lisa. He can be contacted at 017-395 9491.

By SHAUN HO
shaun@thestar.com.my