Asia Sentinel

The declaration is by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, a well-connected journalist who edits the web publication Malaysia 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. One  Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer with connections to top United Malays National Organisation figures expressed doubt about it.

Nonetheless, 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 UMNO elections are due in July 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.

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 while Altatuya's bones remain conspicuously displayed in urns in the courtroom.

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 Abdul Razak, 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 Razakto 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 Abdul Razak, 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 acknowledged in a letter discovered after her death that she had been attemptng to blackmail 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.”

Comments (22)

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Thanks, Asia Sentinel!
written by Antares, June 23, 2008

Once again, you have done what Malaysia's BN-owned media has abysmally failed to do. Report the latest sxensational twist in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder plot. To keep a hot-coal news item like this underwraps is extremely dangerous - it could well burn the whole BN house down. And really, it should! :-)

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Please do not make any wild accusations and assumptions
written by Malay Women in Malaysia, June 23, 2008

I have been following up this story for couple of days already and I’m still speechless! Really don’t know what to say and perhaps it would be best if I stay that way since this is really serious!

Please Malaysians, let’s not make any wild accusations and assumptions just yet. RPK started this and I’m sure somebody will come forward and furnish some evidence if it is true in the next few weeks. Let us all wait and see what will happen next.

Malay Women in Malaysia

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...
written by mhwang, June 23, 2008

As Malaysians we have the right to know whether our leaders are really involved. It is our right to know whether there is a cover up and who is responsible for the cover up. After all someone has been blown up right under our noses and it is crucial we are not known as a cowboy state where everything goes!

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...
written by A true Malaysian, June 23, 2008

Thank you Asia Sentinel. Please forward your reports to TIME, CNN, BBC, NBC, FOX and make this well known in the international stages.

Altantuya Shaariibu deserves justice, and let justice be served.

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Malaysians want to hold their heads high and walk tall
written by Amadas, June 23, 2008

Justice must prevail in Malaysia for the sake of Malaysia and for the sake of Malaysians!!.

Why?

Malaysians want to hold their heads high and walk tall in this world...never to be laughed at, never to be sniggered at by others. Malaysians want the real perpetrators of this heinous crime to be brought to justice

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...
written by Talai Hasibagen, June 23, 2008

"Why is the blood cry out to Me?"
"Revenge is Mine says God."

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GOD IS WATCHING PM AHMAD
written by ksr, June 23, 2008

WHOEVER INVOLVE TO BE PUNISHED NOT TO CLOSE UP PM. GOD IS WATCHING YOU AND YOUR SON IN LAW IF IT IS TRUE REVEAL IT AGAIN GOD IS WATCHING. LIFE OF POOR LADY HOW THE PARENTS HAVE SUFFERED LOST OF THEIR DAUGHTER

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Justice for Altantuya
written by Ben, June 23, 2008

How could decent Malaysians keep quiet and watch their Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak & his wife Rosmah
not being questioned over the C4 cruelsome murder.
Lets hope people all over the world will condemn this desperate killing with all fingers pointing back at Malaysia's DPM Najib & his wife & that at last,thank God ,really at last ,justice will prevail for Altantuya.

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without fear or favour
written by joon malaysia, June 24, 2008

thanks for the coverage - news like this will never see the light of day here

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Viscious trait
written by sang kanchil, June 24, 2008

There is the case of the beautiful TV personality who was savagely beaten up twice, renderng her paralysed from the waist down. It was rumoured that she was involved with a VVIP. Could Rosmah be the one who ordered this beating? Certainly there is similarity in the visciousness of the episode. Perhaps the rumours may turn out to be true after all.

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...
written by albert, June 26, 2008

"The €1 billion (RM4.5 billion) contract to buy the submarines was non-competitive and netted Perimekar €114 million."

....so much money is made via Perimekar & Ombak Laut.
1) rakyat money is being misused.
2) money is the root of evils. Money is properly is correct; corruption is evil as exemplified by this killing by these brutal Malaysians.

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can this case be made public?
written by harris, June 26, 2008

I wish that this case be made completely public. The person who informed RPK should make a statement on a video and upload that in YouTube for all to see. Then those accused also should make their defense at Youtube where all can see. An independent website containing all the evidence from the prosecutors and the accused. A website where all the public can freely upload evidence they have. A website where the public can freely post their comments. Should a case like this be restricted to the court? Or can everyone be the jury?

I have a question for Ben who wrote, "Lets hope people all over the world will condemn this desperate killing with all fingers pointing back at Malaysia's DPM Najib & his wife"

Why do you hope that? Are you so sure that Najib did it? Did you witness him doing it? If you haven't seen the evidence, you are not qualified to be a judge.

A judge should judge based on the evidence, not on preconceived bias.

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Najib
written by Ayu, June 26, 2008

At the moment, Najib is hiding under the PM skirt. God forbid, What will happen to Malaysian justice and RPK when he assumed the mantle of PM!

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A case for Maggoo
written by Sherlock Homes, June 26, 2008

How to pull wool over people's eyes? People are not stupid. So obvious. Why don't we leave the case to Mr Maggoo?

The culprit police officers who blew up the Mongolian model have already apprehended, right? Any fool knows they had no reasons whatsoever to blow her up to kingdom come with controlled explosives since none knew her at all or had had any things to do with the foreign stranger. One doesn't kill in such a brutal and destructive manner unless something very big is jeopardized. From the millions visiting Malaysia, how many tourists(s) have been killed this way?

We don't need a lengthy court case at taxpayers' expense to create the "truth". The entire world is watching and we are the laughing stock.

Try "opening" the killers' mouths and the mastermind(s) will come to light.

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Bapa Malaysia
written by Non-Malay, June 27, 2008

Raja Petra the Pukis is a very revengeful type of person. He was jailed for sedition charges by Najib, therefore he wanted to revenge on Najib by creating such allegation.
His hatred towards Najib and his revengeful personality caused him to lose his mind and telling lies and till using the statutory declaration to lie. He is the rebellious, rascal and arrogant types of person who never respects the law, the people and the country. He thought he is the king. That’s why he dares to create such statutory declaration knowing well its contents are full of lies.
Hope fully ABB or Najib will give this pukis a good lesson.
Really pity his wife for having such husband who is stubborn, obstinate and boorish.

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King Solomon
written by Mano, June 27, 2008

Take a leaf from King Solomon (Suleiman). The "innocent" murderers are already caught. They will surely spill the beans to save their own skins once we dangle the death sentence over their heads. No wonder the entire world is laughing mad over the silly sandiwara.

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Puhleezz
written by Yitzak, June 29, 2008

HELLOOO! Bapa Malaysia. Mind your language pleeze. BTW RPK is now out on bail pending trial in July, SOOO technically he's never been jailed. How then Bapa Malaysia ... do you explain RPK's vengence? Judging from your choice of English words anyone can see that you are an embarassment to the race that you claim you don't belong to. So there!

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Puhlezz the ball licker
written by Datuk Malaysia, July 02, 2008

RPK claims he is a orang Pukis.
RPK was played out by Najis's brother in the eighties, that explained RPK's vengence towards najis's family....
and you the ball licker trying fight for him.....

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This is great stuff
written by hebat, July 03, 2008

Corrupted police force, weak government, strong opposition, meddling monarchy ~ stuff made for Hollywood movies. MALAYSIA APA BENDA PUN BOLEH~~!!!

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RPK - boleh belah
written by Salmahhassan, July 05, 2008

RPK Bulls**t.....haha

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kill najib
written by a guest, July 16, 2008

kill him fast

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to swear upon the quran
written by meilee, November 14, 2008

Murder of Altantuya Saariibuu
It is easy for anyone to denied that they have committed or Involved in any wrong doing (murder etc.)
However being a muslim they can denied anything, but they are definitely refuse or reluctant if they are asked to swear upon the quran.
Supposing they are willing to swear upom the quran especially carried out in a mosque. This would
be accepted (believed) by any muslim.
Being the future first lady of malaysia we could clear any doubt if Rosmah & co willing to swear upon the quran.
If they are willing to do so, we could put the matter to rest by leaving it to almighty God to do what
ever necessary if they are lying.

(burung hantu)

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