Why did Judge Mohd Zaki dismissed to call Najib and Balasubramaniam despite his written declaration, which implicated Najib as a witness in the trial.
A statement by the confessed murderer of Altantuya Shaariibuu raises more questions
A statement by the confessed murderer of Altantuya Shaariibuu raises more questions
On November 9, 2006, at Kuala Lumpur’s Travers police station, Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, then a 35-year-old member of the country’s elite Special Action bodyguard unit under Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, sat down and confessed to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The dead woman, a Mongolian translator who had been executed nearly three weeks before in gruesome fashion with two bullets to the head, is at the center of what would be one of Malaysia’s biggest political scandals ever, involving not only sex and murder but hundreds of millions of dollars in defense contracts.
But the case, which has been underway in a Shah Alam courtroom since June of 2007, is notable for what neither the prosecution, the defense or the judge appeared to want to be bought into open court.
But the case, which has been underway in a Shah Alam courtroom since June of 2007, is notable for what neither the prosecution, the defense or the judge appeared to want to be bought into open court.
After fleeing to Australia to escape the hangman's noose, former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar is now mulling answering the biggest riddle in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder - why did he and Azilah Hadri shoot dead the Mongolian woman and blow up her remains with explosives?
Sure that Sirul would reveal everything concerning the murder Musa Safari,is the key man,yet Malaysian Court find that he is irrelevant.What a decision!Well wasn't that was done to break the link up direct to the supreme leader??
"Yes, I am seriously considering, the ex-police commando reveals that he acted under orders.," he told the press
The news portal reported that Sirul, who is being held at the Immigration and Border Protection Department facility in Sydney, was still negotiating terms.Former police commando Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, is contemplating to reveal the reason that led to the gruesome murder nine years ago Sirul, a one-time bodyguard of Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor,The 43-year-old told Malaysiakini that he never knew Altantuya or even Abdul Razak Baginda – the political analyst and a known associate of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak – who was acquitted with abetting the Mongolian's murder.
On Feb. 3, a tearful Sirul asked the court not to sentence him to death for Altantuya’s murder, saying he was like “a black sheep that has to be sacrificed” to protect unnamed people who have never been brought to court or faced questioning.
“I have no reason to cause hurt, what’s more to take the life of the victim in such a cruel manner,” Sirul said. “I appeal to the court, which has the powers to determine if I live or die, not to sentence me so as to fulfil others’ plans for me.”
Sirul and Azilah are now awaiting sentencing despite the fact that the trial was concluded in February.
Sirul’s confession is an extraordinary and chilling document. In the session, tape-recorded and conducted in Bahasa Malaysia, or Malay language, Sirul was told he was not obliged to answer questions but that whether in answer to questions or not, his remarks would be recorded as a statement.
Sirul’s confession is an extraordinary and chilling document. In the session, tape-recorded and conducted in Bahasa Malaysia, or Malay language, Sirul was told he was not obliged to answer questions but that whether in answer to questions or not, his remarks would be recorded as a statement.
But although the volunary confession indicates that Sirul had been cautioned, it has been ruled inadmissible in the long-running trial of Sirul and his boss, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, and Abdul Razak Baginda, the admitted lover who jilted Altantuya after a torrid affair. Razak was later declared not guilty and freed without having to put on a defense. He has since left the country for England.
An extraordinary amount of evidence connects Najib, now preparing to become Malaysia’s prime minister, to the case. SMS messages exist between Baginda and Najib reassuring him not to worry when he was first under suspicion, saying Najib would fix things. A private investigator hired by Razak Baginda to keep Altantuya away from him after she returned to Malaysia to confront him said in a statutory declaration that Baginda, a well-connected head of a political think tank, had told him Najib had introduced Altantuya to him. The private investigator was forced to recant his statement and hurriedly left the country.
Although Sirul’s statement was ruled inadmissible, presumably that would not have prevented lawyers from repeating the questions in open court in an attempt to get him to answer them. Among other things, in the confession, Sirul says “Azilah talked about a reward of between RM50,000 and RM100,000 if the case was settled.”
Since Baginda has been freed, it raises the question of who else was going to pay the two men to kill Altantuya. That question was never asked or answered in court.
In other court testimony, Sirul said Azilah had told him “there was work to be done and just asked me to follow him.” Musa Safri, Najib Tun Razak’s chief of staff, he testified, “had told him about a friend …who had women problems.”
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Neither Najib nor Musa has been questioned about who sent the two men first to the Hotel Malacca, where, according to the testimony, Azilah wanted Sirul to kill not only Altantuya but the two women who had accompanied her to Kuala Lumpur in an attempt to confront Baginda.
According to other reports, Altantuya had served as a translator in Paris for the Malaysian government’s US$1 billion purchase of three French submarines which was routed through a firm owned by Baginda and which netted him a €114 million commission. Najib, one of Baginda’s best friends, was defense secretary at the time and engineered the purchase.
In a letter found after Altantuya’s death, she expressed regret for attempting to blackmail Razak. Baginda, in a statement to the police, said she was asking for US$500,000 from him, presumably for her role in the transaction.
Sirul and Azilah went to the Malaya Hotel but decided not to kill the three women “because of the presence of CCTV (closed circuit television cameras).”
Ultimately, according to the confession, the two went to Razak Baginda’s house where “there was a Chinese woman (Altantuya) who was causing a commotion.”
The two, with the help of a Malay woman, presumably Lance Corporal Rohaniza Roslan, Azila’s former girlfriend, bundled Altantuya into a red Proton Wira and drove her to where Sirul’s jeep awaited. Rohaniza later claimed she had been coerced to change her testimony. The prosecution attempted to impeach her as a witness.
“Along the journey, Azilah asked me to find a place to ‘shoot to kill the Chinese woman.” Eventually after she was driven to Sirul’s house to pick up the military explosives that would be wrapped around her body after she was dead, she was then driven to the Punchak Alam forest reserve near the suburban city of Shah Alam.
“I saw Azilah outside the jeep carrying a bag containing an M5 weapon and silencer from the jeep that was located at the foot rest of the passenger seat and gave it to me ordering me to ‘shoot to kill’ the Chinese woman who was inside the jeep.”
They took her jewelry and other articles, Sirul said, and “I saw that she was in a state of fear and she pleaded not to kill her and said she was expecting.” Nonetheless, Azilah wrestled her to the ground, apparently knocking her unconscious, and “I opened fire towards the left side of the woman’s head. After the Chinese woman was shot, Azilah removed all her clothes and I took a black garbage bag and Azilah put all the Chinese woman’s clothes into the bag.”
Azilah, he said, “noticed movements in the Chinese woman’s arm and ordered me to fire another shot but the gun did not fire. I then emptied the weapon and loaded the gun again and fired another shot at the same area which was the left side of the woman’s head. I then took a black plastic garbage bag and with Azilah’s help put the bag over the Chinese woman’s head to prevent blood from spilling.”
With Sirul holding her arms and Azilah holding her legs, they carried Altantuya into the woods. “Azilah then carried the bag containing the explosives and handed it to me. I took the explosives and attached them to the victim’s head while Azilah attached the explosives on the victim’s legs up to the abdomen.” After attaching a wire to the explosives, they blew her up.
After returning to the Bukit Aman police station, “I had a bath and changed clothes and put the clothes that I wore during the incident together with the victim’s clothes into a plastic bag. After that, I entered the jeep and drove the jeep to a rubbish container in the Bukit Aman area near a construction site. I threw some of the victim’s belongings and the wire that was used to detonate the explosives together with the empty bag that contained the explosives into the container.’
Then he went home and went to sleep.
C4 Murder: Malaysian Police will be calling up Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin to investigate allegations in his recent statutory declaration on purported facts related to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said the three individuals named in the document filed on June 18 would also be called up.
In an explosive statutory declaration to a Malaysian court, one of Malaysia’s most prominent web journalists has alleged that the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as well as a Malaysian Army officer and the officer’s wife were directly involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006, and that people at the very top of the Malaysian government are aware of the fact. Raja Petra Kamaruddin states:
“Altantuya’s body is alleged to have been blown up with C4 explosives at a secondary forest in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. The murder trial is currently ongoing at the Shah Alam High Court.
“My informer states that Aziz was the person who placed the C4 on various parts of Altantuya’s body witnessed by Rosmah and Norhayati,” Raja Petra claimed in the document.
“I make this statutory declaration because I have been reliably informed about the involvement of these three people who have thus far not been implicated in the murder nor called as witnesses by the prosecution in the ongoing trial at the Shah Alam High Court.
“I also make this statutory declaration because I am aware that it is a crime not to reveal evidence that may help the police in its investigation of the crime,” read the document, which was first posted on the bigdogdotcomblog run by another blogger.“
He further alleged that he has also been ‘reliably informed’ that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi knows of Najib’s wife alleged involvement.
Najib and Rosmah have repeatedly denied they are linked to the killing of Altantuya, describing the widely-known allegations was nothing more than ‘slander and concocted stories’.
The declaration, by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a well-connected journalist who edits the web publicationMalaysia Today and is on trial for sedition charges stemming from a commentary on the case. There is no independent confirmation of Raja Petra’s allegations, and the declaration was ignored by Malaysia’s government-linked mainstream media and one Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer with connections to top United Malays National Organisation figures expressed doubt about it.
In the declaration, Raja Petra claimed that the trio – one of them a prominent woman – were present at the scene during the murder of the Mongolian translator in October 2006.
Copies of the two-paged declaration together with the identity of the trio have been posted on various blog sites.
In the document, Raja Petra said he was “reliably informed” of these allegations. An aide to Najib also said they were aware of this latest claim made by Raja Petra. The aide however refused to comment if any action could be taken against Raja Petra.
Musa said the matter could be sub judice as the Altantuya murder case was still being heard.
He also said Raja Petra must be “brave enough to face the consequences if he is bold enough” to make the allegations.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General’s Chambers has lodged a police report against Raja Petra over the statutory declaration.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said the allegations were “highly defamatory” and if found untrue, those making the allegations would have to face the consequences.
“We want to investigate because we want the truth. As far as I am concerned, we have to look at it seriously.”
“If it’s true, we will act accordingly. If not, the writer will be investigated,” he said, adding that the report was lodged in Putrajaya on Saturday.
Raja Petra said he expected to be called up.
He said he was bold enough to face the consequences. This is not the first time he is alleging that Najib was involved in Altantuya’s murder, but he has failed to produce any solid proofs besides empty talks so far.
The story adds considerable chaos to the country’s political mix. The Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition, is reeling from the loss of its two-thirds majority in March elections. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, taking the brunt of criticism over the loss, has already promised to step down at some future date to cede the premiership to Najib. District elections are due in July in the United Malays National Organisation and there are suspicions that the verdict in the Altantuya murder trial is being delayed until the elections are completed.
Raja Petra wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up. Both Najib and his wife have repeatedly denied any involvement in the case although Kuala Lumpur has been buzzing for months with rumors of their complicity.
Shaariibuu was executed by two shots to the head and her body was blown up with military explosives in a patch of jungle near the suburban city of Shah Alam. One of Najib’s closest friends, Abdul Razak Baginda, once the influential head of a political think-tank, and two of Najib’s bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the elite Unit Tindak Khas or Special Police Action Unit, are the subjects of a marathon murder trial that got underway more than a year ago.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ordered the police to conduct a thorough probe into the murder of a beautiful Mongolian freelance model.
The Prime Minister said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan informed him about the murder of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“I told the IGP he had to investigate the case thoroughly and properly.
“Nobody is above the law. That should be remembered,” he said when asked to comment on the high-profile murder that took place about two weeks ago.
The police have detained a 46-year-old prominent political analyst who heads a local think-tank and remanded him for five days from yesterday to facilitate investigation.
On the involvement of police personnel in the murder, Abdullah, who is also Internal Security Minister, said action must be taken against anybody found guilty under the law.
Three police personnel — a chief inspector, a lance corporal and a constable — have also been remanded to assist investigation into the gruesome killing of Altantuya, who was shot before her body was blown up to bits in a secondary jungle in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam.
The woman arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 9 with her sister and a cousin in search of the political analyst whom she claimed fathered her 16-month-old son.
Altantuya’s case came to light after her sister lodged a police report following her disappearance on Oct 21. Police identified the political analyst, who is said to have befriended the deceased a few years ago, as a suspect.
Earlier, Abdullah launched the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair and the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies at Universiti Malaya.
Neither Najib nor his chief of staff, Musa Safri, has been questioned nor summoned to testify despite the fact that Baginda, in a sworn statement in November 2006, said he had contacted Musa for help in dealing with Altantuya, his jilted lover who was demanding money. That statement raised suspicions that all sides in the court – prosecution, defense and judiciary – are struggling to keep the case under wraps. The trial has been subject to numerous delays for reasons that are unclear.
Raja Petra himself is due to go on trial in October on sedition charges that were filed against him for writing an article titled “Let’s Send Altantuya’s Murderers to Hell.” In that piece, he accused Najib, his wife and others of complicity in the murder. He amplified the statement considerably in his statutory declaration, made last Wednesday, in which he also said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had seen a full report by military intelligence on the involvement of the deputy premier’s family. Badawi gave the intelligence report to his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, for safekeeping, according to Raja Petra’s statement.
Raja Petra, a member of the Selangor royal family, also wrote that one of the country’s sultans had been given a full report on the matter. He didn’t identify the sultan, but if his statements are true it means that at least one member of royalty may be able to back up his declaration, which was not made under oath.
From the time Altantuya’s body was discovered, the case has raised dark questions about the possible involvement of top government figures. Others also believe that the 28-year-old mother of two may have been involved in a much bigger controversy than a jilted relationship. She made several trips to Kuala Lumpur to attempt to confront Baginda, at one point standing in front of his house and screaming “Razak, bastard, come out!” The last time she was seen alive was again in front of his house, when she was bundled into a car and taken away.
She had accompanied Baginda to France when he was involved in negotiating the purchase of two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government through a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris, for the Malaysian defense ministry, which was headed by Najib as minister. The submarines were bought through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which at the time was owned by yet another company, Ombak Laut, which was wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda.
The €1 billion (RM4.5 billion) contract to buy the submarines was non-competitive and netted Perimekar €114 million. Although Najib has sworn an oath to Allah that he had never met the woman, he was in France at the same time as Najib, one of his best friends, was there, dealing with matters over the submarine. A cousin of Altantuya’s testified at the trial that she had seen a picture of Najib together with the dead woman, but she was quickly hushed up by both defense and prosecution lawyers about the matter and the picture has not been produced.
Altantuya admitted in a letter discovered after her death that she had been blackmailing Abdul Razak, presumably to keep his family from finding out about their relationship. But in his statement to the police, Baginda said he had already informed his family of the relationship; he said she was pressuring him for US$500,000. Her father, Setev Shaariibuu, a psychology professor in Ulan Bataar, has said she was killed because she “knew too much,” although he has never elaborated on that statement.
Given the close relationship between the two men, and that Najib was reported as presenting jackets made available by Perimekar to the submarine crews training in France, and that Altantuya was traveling with Baginda, it is difficult to understand why the court has not pursued the issue of whether they met.
It is also difficult to understand, given published reports, plus the fact that the accused Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar were members of Najib’s own bodyguard unit, that neither Najib nor Musa has been questioned about how the bodyguards came to be accused of Altantuya’s murder.
There have been many other discrepancies as well. Prosecutorial setbacks over the course of the trial have endangered the case. Sirul’s purported confession has been thrown out. The prosecution has attempted to impeach one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, Rohaniza Roslan, a 28-year-old policewoman and Azilah’s girlfriend. Rohaniza said she had seen the victim bundled into a red Proton car and taken away. Later, in court, she said she had been “tortured and coaxed” by police interrogators into signing that statement; she then offered the court a version of events that differed considerably from her initial account.
“The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor cannot remain silent on the latest bombshell,” wrote Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party. “The credibility and legitimacy of the Abdullah premiership and government will suffer a mortal blow if Abdullah, Najib and Rosmah remain silent on Raja Petra’s bombshell allegations.”
Raja Petra Kamarudin has made a serious statutory declaration on June 18 alleging that Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib’s wife, was at the murder scene of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006. Whether the allegation is truth or not is not known… in fact only very few people would know at the moment. RPK has shown his courage over the years, some say he is abusing his influence to bully the politicians.
Altantuya was last seen on Oct 19, 2006 as she was being bundled into a car outside Abdul Razak’s home.
Najib Abdul Razak has been asked to explain the claim made in a court testimonial today that he had been photographed with murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu. PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said it was all the more compelling for the deputy premier to explain since he had previously denied having met her.
THE MONGOLIAN PM WROTE TO THE MALAYSIAN PM BUT NEVER GOT A RESPONSE…
Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa (Mongolian language: Шаарийбуугийн Алтантуяа; sometimes alsoAltantuya Shaariibuu; 1978 – 2006), a Mongolian national, was a murder victim who was either murdered by C-4explosives or was somehow killed first and her remains destroyed with C-4 in October 2006 in a deserted area in Shah Alam, Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur.
Altantuyaa was born in 1978. Her parents raised her and her sister while they worked in Russia where Altantuyaa started first grade elementary school. She was reportedly fluent in Mongolian, Russian, Chinese and English.
Altantuyaa moved back to Mongolia in 1990 and a few years later, married a Mongolian techno singer, Maadai. They had a child in 1996 but the marriage ended in divorce and the child went to live with Altantuyaa’s parents.
Despite training as a teacher, Altantuyaa briefly moved to France where she attended modeling school before returning to Mongolia. She only modeled part-time, for a brief time also opening a tour business in Mongolia.
Altantuyaa remarried and had another child in 2003 but the second marriage also ended in divorce (this is questionable). The second child also lives with Altantuyaa’s parents. Her mother said she never been a model.
She moved to Hong Kong in 2005, it was around this time she met Abdul Razak Baginda, a defense analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre think-tank, reportedly beginning a relationship with him. Initial reports of Altantuya having a child with Abdul Razak have been proven to be untrue.
Some sources allege that Altantuya came to Kuala Lumpur with a cousin in early October 2006 intending to confront Abdul Razak. When she went missing on Oct 19, her cousin lodged a police report and sought help from the Mongolian embassy in Bangkok.
Malaysian police found fragments of bone, later verified as hers, in forested land near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. Police investigation of her remains revealed that she was shot twice before C-4explosives were used on her remains, although there has been later suggestion that the C-4 explosives may have killed her. When her remains were found their identity could only be confirmed with DNA testing. The provenance of the C-4 remains unclear.
Abdul Razak and three members of the police force were arrested during the murder investigation. The two murder suspects have been named as Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. They had been members of the elite Unit Tindakan Khas (the Malaysian Police Special Action Force or counter-terrorism unit) and were both assigned to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who was also the Defence Minister at the time of the murder. Abdul Razak has been charged with abetment in the murder.
Altantuya’s brutal murder received wide, detailed coverage in Malaysia, Mongolia and other Asian countries.
The trial was originally going to be held in March 2007, but was postponed until the 4th of June 2007. Due to controversial and last-minute changes in the prosecution and defence teams, and the presiding judge, the trial was again postponed until 18 June 2007. The pre-trial preparations have seen both the prosecution and defence teams level accusations of evidential impropriety at one another.
During the trial there was an incident between Baginda’s wife and the victim’s father.
In a statutory declaration in his sedition trial in October 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (the wife of Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on Oct 19, 2006. He wrote that wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up.A group of Mongolian officials specially tasked by their government to look into the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder will arrive in Malaysia in August.
C4 Murder: Malaysian Police will be calling up Malaysia Today editor Raja Petra Kamaruddin to investigate allegations in his recent statutory declaration on purported facts related to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu. Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said the three individuals named in the document filed on June 18 would also be called up.
In an explosive statutory declaration to a Malaysian court, one of Malaysia’s most prominent web journalists has alleged that the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as well as a Malaysian Army officer and the officer’s wife were directly involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006, and that people at the very top of the Malaysian government are aware of the fact. Raja Petra Kamaruddin states:
“Altantuya’s body is alleged to have been blown up with C4 explosives at a secondary forest in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. The murder trial is currently ongoing at the Shah Alam High Court.
“My informer states that Aziz was the person who placed the C4 on various parts of Altantuya’s body witnessed by Rosmah and Norhayati,” Raja Petra claimed in the document.
“I make this statutory declaration because I have been reliably informed about the involvement of these three people who have thus far not been implicated in the murder nor called as witnesses by the prosecution in the ongoing trial at the Shah Alam High Court.
“I also make this statutory declaration because I am aware that it is a crime not to reveal evidence that may help the police in its investigation of the crime,” read the document, which was first posted on the bigdogdotcomblog run by another blogger.“
He further alleged that he has also been ‘reliably informed’ that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi knows of Najib’s wife alleged involvement.
Najib and Rosmah have repeatedly denied they are linked to the killing of Altantuya, describing the widely-known allegations was nothing more than ‘slander and concocted stories’.
The declaration, by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a well-connected journalist who edits the web publicationMalaysia Today and is on trial for sedition charges stemming from a commentary on the case. There is no independent confirmation of Raja Petra’s allegations, and the declaration was ignored by Malaysia’s government-linked mainstream media and one Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer with connections to top United Malays National Organisation figures expressed doubt about it.
In the declaration, Raja Petra claimed that the trio – one of them a prominent woman – were present at the scene during the murder of the Mongolian translator in October 2006.
Copies of the two-paged declaration together with the identity of the trio have been posted on various blog sites.
In the document, Raja Petra said he was “reliably informed” of these allegations. An aide to Najib also said they were aware of this latest claim made by Raja Petra. The aide however refused to comment if any action could be taken against Raja Petra.
Musa said the matter could be sub judice as the Altantuya murder case was still being heard.
He also said Raja Petra must be “brave enough to face the consequences if he is bold enough” to make the allegations.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General’s Chambers has lodged a police report against Raja Petra over the statutory declaration.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said the allegations were “highly defamatory” and if found untrue, those making the allegations would have to face the consequences.
“We want to investigate because we want the truth. As far as I am concerned, we have to look at it seriously.”
“If it’s true, we will act accordingly. If not, the writer will be investigated,” he said, adding that the report was lodged in Putrajaya on Saturday.
Raja Petra said he expected to be called up.
He said he was bold enough to face the consequences. This is not the first time he is alleging that Najib was involved in Altantuya’s murder, but he has failed to produce any solid proofs besides empty talks so far.
The story adds considerable chaos to the country’s political mix. The Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition, is reeling from the loss of its two-thirds majority in March elections. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, taking the brunt of criticism over the loss, has already promised to step down at some future date to cede the premiership to Najib. District elections are due in July in the United Malays National Organisation and there are suspicions that the verdict in the Altantuya murder trial is being delayed until the elections are completed.
Raja Petra wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up. Both Najib and his wife have repeatedly denied any involvement in the case although Kuala Lumpur has been buzzing for months with rumors of their complicity.
Shaariibuu was executed by two shots to the head and her body was blown up with military explosives in a patch of jungle near the suburban city of Shah Alam. One of Najib’s closest friends, Abdul Razak Baginda, once the influential head of a political think-tank, and two of Najib’s bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the elite Unit Tindak Khas or Special Police Action Unit, are the subjects of a marathon murder trial that got underway more than a year ago.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has ordered the police to conduct a thorough probe into the murder of a beautiful Mongolian freelance model.
The Prime Minister said Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan informed him about the murder of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“I told the IGP he had to investigate the case thoroughly and properly.
“Nobody is above the law. That should be remembered,” he said when asked to comment on the high-profile murder that took place about two weeks ago.
The police have detained a 46-year-old prominent political analyst who heads a local think-tank and remanded him for five days from yesterday to facilitate investigation.
On the involvement of police personnel in the murder, Abdullah, who is also Internal Security Minister, said action must be taken against anybody found guilty under the law.
Three police personnel — a chief inspector, a lance corporal and a constable — have also been remanded to assist investigation into the gruesome killing of Altantuya, who was shot before her body was blown up to bits in a secondary jungle in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam.
The woman arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 9 with her sister and a cousin in search of the political analyst whom she claimed fathered her 16-month-old son.
Altantuya’s case came to light after her sister lodged a police report following her disappearance on Oct 21. Police identified the political analyst, who is said to have befriended the deceased a few years ago, as a suspect.
Earlier, Abdullah launched the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair and the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies at Universiti Malaya.
Neither Najib nor his chief of staff, Musa Safri, has been questioned nor summoned to testify despite the fact that Baginda, in a sworn statement in November 2006, said he had contacted Musa for help in dealing with Altantuya, his jilted lover who was demanding money. That statement raised suspicions that all sides in the court – prosecution, defense and judiciary – are struggling to keep the case under wraps. The trial has been subject to numerous delays for reasons that are unclear.
Raja Petra himself is due to go on trial in October on sedition charges that were filed against him for writing an article titled “Let’s Send Altantuya’s Murderers to Hell.” In that piece, he accused Najib, his wife and others of complicity in the murder. He amplified the statement considerably in his statutory declaration, made last Wednesday, in which he also said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had seen a full report by military intelligence on the involvement of the deputy premier’s family. Badawi gave the intelligence report to his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, for safekeeping, according to Raja Petra’s statement.
Raja Petra, a member of the Selangor royal family, also wrote that one of the country’s sultans had been given a full report on the matter. He didn’t identify the sultan, but if his statements are true it means that at least one member of royalty may be able to back up his declaration, which was not made under oath.
From the time Altantuya’s body was discovered, the case has raised dark questions about the possible involvement of top government figures. Others also believe that the 28-year-old mother of two may have been involved in a much bigger controversy than a jilted relationship. She made several trips to Kuala Lumpur to attempt to confront Baginda, at one point standing in front of his house and screaming “Razak, bastard, come out!” The last time she was seen alive was again in front of his house, when she was bundled into a car and taken away.
She had accompanied Baginda to France when he was involved in negotiating the purchase of two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government through a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris, for the Malaysian defense ministry, which was headed by Najib as minister. The submarines were bought through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which at the time was owned by yet another company, Ombak Laut, which was wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda.
The €1 billion (RM4.5 billion) contract to buy the submarines was non-competitive and netted Perimekar €114 million. Although Najib has sworn an oath to Allah that he had never met the woman, he was in France at the same time as Najib, one of his best friends, was there, dealing with matters over the submarine. A cousin of Altantuya’s testified at the trial that she had seen a picture of Najib together with the dead woman, but she was quickly hushed up by both defense and prosecution lawyers about the matter and the picture has not been produced.
Altantuya admitted in a letter discovered after her death that she had been blackmailing Abdul Razak, presumably to keep his family from finding out about their relationship. But in his statement to the police, Baginda said he had already informed his family of the relationship; he said she was pressuring him for US$500,000. Her father, Setev Shaariibuu, a psychology professor in Ulan Bataar, has said she was killed because she “knew too much,” although he has never elaborated on that statement.
Given the close relationship between the two men, and that Najib was reported as presenting jackets made available by Perimekar to the submarine crews training in France, and that Altantuya was traveling with Baginda, it is difficult to understand why the court has not pursued the issue of whether they met.
It is also difficult to understand, given published reports, plus the fact that the accused Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar were members of Najib’s own bodyguard unit, that neither Najib nor Musa has been questioned about how the bodyguards came to be accused of Altantuya’s murder.
There have been many other discrepancies as well. Prosecutorial setbacks over the course of the trial have endangered the case. Sirul’s purported confession has been thrown out. The prosecution has attempted to impeach one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, Rohaniza Roslan, a 28-year-old policewoman and Azilah’s girlfriend. Rohaniza said she had seen the victim bundled into a red Proton car and taken away. Later, in court, she said she had been “tortured and coaxed” by police interrogators into signing that statement; she then offered the court a version of events that differed considerably from her initial account.
“The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor cannot remain silent on the latest bombshell,” wrote Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party. “The credibility and legitimacy of the Abdullah premiership and government will suffer a mortal blow if Abdullah, Najib and Rosmah remain silent on Raja Petra’s bombshell allegations.”
Raja Petra Kamarudin has made a serious statutory declaration on June 18 alleging that Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib’s wife, was at the murder scene of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006. Whether the allegation is truth or not is not known… in fact only very few people would know at the moment. RPK has shown his courage over the years, some say he is abusing his influence to bully the politicians.
Altantuya was last seen on Oct 19, 2006 as she was being bundled into a car outside Abdul Razak’s home.
Najib Abdul Razak has been asked to explain the claim made in a court testimonial today that he had been photographed with murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu. PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim said it was all the more compelling for the deputy premier to explain since he had previously denied having met her.
THE MONGOLIAN PM WROTE TO THE MALAYSIAN PM BUT NEVER GOT A RESPONSE…
Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa (Mongolian language: Шаарийбуугийн Алтантуяа; sometimes alsoAltantuya Shaariibuu; 1978 – 2006), a Mongolian national, was a murder victim who was either murdered by C-4explosives or was somehow killed first and her remains destroyed with C-4 in October 2006 in a deserted area in Shah Alam, Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur.
Altantuyaa was born in 1978. Her parents raised her and her sister while they worked in Russia where Altantuyaa started first grade elementary school. She was reportedly fluent in Mongolian, Russian, Chinese and English.
Altantuyaa moved back to Mongolia in 1990 and a few years later, married a Mongolian techno singer, Maadai. They had a child in 1996 but the marriage ended in divorce and the child went to live with Altantuyaa’s parents.
Despite training as a teacher, Altantuyaa briefly moved to France where she attended modeling school before returning to Mongolia. She only modeled part-time, for a brief time also opening a tour business in Mongolia.
Altantuyaa remarried and had another child in 2003 but the second marriage also ended in divorce (this is questionable). The second child also lives with Altantuyaa’s parents. Her mother said she never been a model.
She moved to Hong Kong in 2005, it was around this time she met Abdul Razak Baginda, a defense analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre think-tank, reportedly beginning a relationship with him. Initial reports of Altantuya having a child with Abdul Razak have been proven to be untrue.
Some sources allege that Altantuya came to Kuala Lumpur with a cousin in early October 2006 intending to confront Abdul Razak. When she went missing on Oct 19, her cousin lodged a police report and sought help from the Mongolian embassy in Bangkok.
Malaysian police found fragments of bone, later verified as hers, in forested land near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. Police investigation of her remains revealed that she was shot twice before C-4explosives were used on her remains, although there has been later suggestion that the C-4 explosives may have killed her. When her remains were found their identity could only be confirmed with DNA testing. The provenance of the C-4 remains unclear.
Abdul Razak and three members of the police force were arrested during the murder investigation. The two murder suspects have been named as Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. They had been members of the elite Unit Tindakan Khas (the Malaysian Police Special Action Force or counter-terrorism unit) and were both assigned to the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, who was also the Defence Minister at the time of the murder. Abdul Razak has been charged with abetment in the murder.
Altantuya’s brutal murder received wide, detailed coverage in Malaysia, Mongolia and other Asian countries.
The trial was originally going to be held in March 2007, but was postponed until the 4th of June 2007. Due to controversial and last-minute changes in the prosecution and defence teams, and the presiding judge, the trial was again postponed until 18 June 2007. The pre-trial preparations have seen both the prosecution and defence teams level accusations of evidential impropriety at one another.
During the trial there was an incident between Baginda’s wife and the victim’s father.
In a statutory declaration in his sedition trial in October 2008, Raja Petra accused Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor (the wife of Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak) of being one of three individuals who were present at the crime scene when Altantuya Shaariibuu was murdered on Oct 19, 2006. He wrote that wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up.A group of Mongolian officials specially tasked by their government to look into the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder will arrive in Malaysia in August.
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