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POLICE officers tried to have the body of Sheku Bayoh returned to Sierra Leone two days after his death in custody, it has emerged.

They contacted the country’s embassy to discuss repatriating his body but officials in London were alarmed and contacted the father-of-two’s family.

Sheku’s brother-in-law Ade Johnson said: “That is not the action of a police force with nothing to hide.”

The 31-year-old trainee gas engineer, who left Africa and settled in Kirkcaldy, died in May of suspected asphyxia while in police custody after he was restrained by up to nine officers .

A post-mortem examination revealed he had cuts and bruises all over his body, including more than 20 facial injuries and tiny blood spots in his eyes.

Sheku’s death is being investigated but former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill last week said he did not expect police officers to face charges .

Furious, his family, including partner Colette Bell, revealed how attempts had been made to take his body to Africa without their knowledge.

Ade, 38, said: “It stinks. Mr MacAskill thinks the police have nothing to hide. Why then were Police Scotland looking to send Shek’s body out of the country without consulting his family?

“And how convenient that Sierra Leone is a country with Ebola and there would have been no returning the body to the UK, helping the cause of death to stay hidden?”

He told how embassy official Clara Koroma immediately informed family solicitor Aamer Anwar of the plans to take Sheku’s body to Sierra Leone.

Ade added: “Police Scotland knew that Shek lived in Scotland and his next of kin was in Scotland as they had been to the door to inform us of his death.

“In those first hours, they gave us different versions of his death. Some said he died in the street, others in an ambulance on his way to hospital.

“Then you learn the police are trying to have the body quietly removed from the country. What kind of faith can we have in the police after that?”

Police Scotland would not comment because a probe was under way.