Govt is blocking the re-opening of Altantuya case, says ex-CID chief

Written by  Melissa Lee, Malaysia Chronicle

Former CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim accused Attorney General Gani Patail of bypassing the courts by dismissing private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s statutory declarations regarding the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shariibuu.

In an open letter to Inspector-General of Policei Ismail Omar published in his blog on Monday, he said Gani was trying to ensure that the Altantuya murder case is not reopened.

“The question now is what right does Gani Patail have to decide that the contradictions in the two Bala SDs will not affect the Altantuya case. Or maybe he would like to admit that he is also acting as the Chief Judge hearing the case,” said Mat Zain.

Bala linked the first couple to the murder and submarines

After a 159-day trial in April 2009, the Shah Alam High Court sentenced two of Prime Minister Najib Razak's former bodyguards to hang for the killing of the 28-year old Altantuya, who allegedly had an affair with Najib before he passed her on to his close friend Razak Baginda.

It is also believed that Altantuya had acted as a go-between for Baginda in the Malaysian navy's purchase of three submarines from France in 2002. The deal was approved by Najib, who was then the defense minister.

Baginda, who was the chief negotiator, was charged for abetting the murder but was later acquitted.

During the controversial trial, the judge disallowed questioning into the role played by Altantuya in the submarines acquisition and also brushed aside cross-examination that delved into whether the bodyguards had been ordered by 'higher-ups' to kill Altantuya.

Too many connections for Najib to deny

In July 2008, Balasubramaniam who worked for Baginda, linked Najib to Altantuya and the submarines in a statutory declaration. The very next day, he retracted the statement and fled the country. Bala resurfaced last year and accused Najib's brother of giving him money to leave the country. He also upheld the first declaration.

That led to opposition lawmakers raising the matter in Parliament and calling for a probe into Bala's statutory declarations but their efforts were unsuccessful. Minister in PM's Department Nazri Aziz confirmed the government would not take further action on the declarations, sparking accusations that it was covering up for Najib and wife Rosmah.

The first couple has been accused of being involved in acepting huge kickbacks for submarines purchase and in the Altantuya murder as well.

In Paris, the French authorities are investigating the kickbacks paid by the submarines vendor DCN to Perimekar, a firm connected to Baginda which is believed to be the vehicle through which the 114 million euros or RM570 million kickback was channelled.

For Razak Baginda, The Altantuya-Scorpenes Story Is Far From Over

From Malaysia Chronicle

Razak Baginda is a hard man to find.

His controvesial acquittal from abetting the Altantuya murder came after a prolonged murder trial and almost two years after being arrested at his office.

Walking out from the courtroom a free man, he quietly relocated to the United Kingdom to continue his studies and since then has remained out of the public’s eye.

He last surfaced in Singapore on April 19th, 2010 when giving a talk on the Islamic Caliphate at Nanyang Technical University to a group of 40 participants.

Other than this event, he has remained out of sight with many speculating that he has chosen to reside in the UK although he may just be keeping his head down in Kuala Lumpur, where he has lived for decades.

But all that lying low may come to an end soon as the French investigators have shown interest in his role in the RM7 billion purchase of Scorpene submarines from French firm DCN.

One of the key holders

There is also the matter of alleged irregularities in the payment of a RM570 million ‘support services deal’ to Perimekar, a company linked to Baginda.

So far in replies to Parliament, the Malaysian government has insisted it was not a kickback to Perimekar for clinching the order but for “co-ordination and support services”. Presumably, it related to the submarines although Perimekar has no known record of such high-tech expertise.

Baginda is definitely one of those holding the keys to Najib Razak’s survival. If ever Baginda chooses to come forward to tell his side of the story, what a moment that would be for Malaysia.

Statements by private investigator P Balasubramaniam to the French financial police have painted a picture of the involvement of several military personel in the Altantuya murder.

In the course of the interview, two new names also surfaced — Malaysians identified as Major Rahim and Abdul Rahim bin Saad. What roles do the two Rahims have in the murder is still unclear, but it is a more than fair assumption that Baginda would be in the know.

Global stage

So all eyes are now shifting to Razak Baginda once again. He has been adamant in professing his innocence of the murder. Yet his link to Altantuya can never be denied.

Baginda even hired Bala to keep her from harassing his family. So while Baginda may have been just as surprised that those more ruthless and with more at stake than him had chosen to cold-bloodedly order her killing, he knows who they are.

By not revealing the truth, is Baginda not just as guilty of abettment as picking up the phone and saying ‘do it, men’.

For a man of his learning and capability, it is a shame to choose to err on the side of the dark. Hopefully, one day, he will step out into the light and tell all to the world – for Altanutya is no longer just another sordid Malaysian murder and corruption case, but has gained a global stage.

From the world of academia to switching corpses

Baginda graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in politics and government from London’s City Polytechnic in 1982, and gained a master’s degree in War Studies at King’s College London in 1984. He is certainly no idiot.

A smart man with dashing good looks, he returned to Malaysia in 1988, joined the Malaysian Armed Forces Defense College as a lecturer and eventually became head of strategic studies. In 1993, he formed a think-tank called the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre, which is based in Kuala Lumpur.

His abilities put him in the front-row seat to be advisor to the then-Defence Minister Najib Razak and eventually as lead negotiator for the purchase of military equipment from France.

With so much going for him, it is not impossible for Baginda to issue a “kill” order to Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, the former bodyguards to Najib and Rosmah who have been sentenced to hang for her death.

Certainly, Baginda’s wife and family feared he might be made the scapegoat for Altantuya’s killing. It would have so easy for the real “killers” to have just shut the prison doors on him and let him suffer the same fate as the two cops, now on death row.

But as Baginda was acquitted, there is also widespread speculation backed by visual evidence that the two bodyguards might also be allowed to cheat death.

There is much speculation the highly odd way the police have always covered up the faces of Azilah and Sirul whenever they went to court was to enable them to eventually ‘escape’ and return to normal life, but under different identities. Other corpses would be used when the time came to hang them, so the macabre stories abound.

Whole truth or fatal mistake

Why do these 3 men – Baginda, Azilah and Sirul – hold so much ‘power’? Who or what is protecting them?

Why haven’t the real “killers” opted to throw these three men to the gallows and in this way forever keep their secrets hidden? Is it because the trio has made sure that in the event the worst happened to them, ‘information would leak out’.

It would be Baginda’s ‘information’ that would be the most damaging, of course. No surprises, the French investigators would put him top on their list of witnesses. But will he go?

It is anyone’s guess what Baginda will do. If he does decide to travel to Paris, what will he tell French? Would the link to Najib and all its ramifications finally come to light? Will Baginda tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Or will he choose to continue riding on his current and extremely comfortable lifestyle – secure in the knowledge that what he knows puts him out of the reach of the powers that be in Malaysia? Sad to say, that may eventually prove to be his fatal mistake.

WikiLeaks and the Altantuya Murder

From http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3197&Itemid=178 


Cables show the US embassy in KL feared "prosecutorial misconduct" during the sensational 2009 trial 

The US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur closely followed the trial of the accused killers of Mongolian interpreter Altantuya Shaariibuu and frequently discussed whether current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was involved in the killing, according to diplomatic cables supplied to Asia Sentinel by the WikiLeaks website. 

The diplomats, like much of the public, also speculated that the trial was being deliberately delayed and feared what one cable calls "prosecutorial misconduct" that was being politically manipulated. The embassy officials based their concerns on sources within the prosecution, government and the political opposition.

The cables also draw attention to an intriguing allegation that then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may have attempted to use the proceedings to implicate Najib, a claim that was quickly hushed up in the Malaysian press. 

Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 by two of Najib's bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, 30 and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, 35. who stood trial and were pronounced guilty in April 2009.  Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib's best friends and Altantuya's lover, was accused of participating in the murder but was freed without having to put on a defense.

The murder has been tied closely to the US$1 billion acquisition of French submarines by the Malaysian ministry of defense, which Najib headed as defense minister during the acquisitions. Altantuya reportedly acted as a translator on the transaction, which netted Razak Baginda's company a €114 million "commission" on the purchase.  Reportedly she had been offered US$500,000 for her part in translating.  After she was jilted, she vainly demanded payment. A letter she had written was made public after her death saying she regretted attempting to "blackmail" Razak Baginda.

French lawyers are investigating whether some of the €114 million was kicked back to French or Malaysian politicians. Despite the scandal, the US government has not publicly backed away from Najib. In April 2010, Najib visited the White House and was praised by President Barack Obama for the parliament's passage of an act allowing Malaysian authorities to take action against individuals and entities engaged in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. 

The cables are replete with accounts of a long series of meetings with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who repeatedly told the Americans that Najib was connected to corrupt practices in the acquisition of the submarines as well as the purchase of Sukhoi Su-MCM-30 Flanker fighter jets from Russia.  Anwar also called attention to Najib's connection to the Altantuya case.

A Jan. 24, 2007 cable, marked "secret," wrote that "Perceived irregularities on the part of prosecutors and the court, and the alleged destruction of some evidence, suggested to many that the case was subject to strong political pressure intended to protect Najib."

In a Feb. 1, 2008 cable, the embassy's Political Section Chief, Mark D. Clark, wrote that a deputy prosecutor had told him "there was almost no chance of winning guilty verdicts in the on-going trial of defendants Razak Baginda, a close advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, and two police officers.  She described the trial as interminably long." (That, of course, turned out to be wrong. Sirul and Azilah were ultimately convicted and have appealed their sentence) 

Clark called the trial a "a prosecutorial embarrassment from its inception, leading many to speculate that the ineptitude was by design.  On the eve of the trial,Malaysia's Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail dropped his lead prosecutors and replaced them with less experienced attorneys.  Similarly, a lead counsel for one of the defendants abruptly resigned before the trial 'because of (political) attempts to interfere with a defense he had proposed, in particular to protect an unnamed third party.'" 

The protracted nature of the case, Clark continued, led "at least one regional newspaper to speculate that 'the case is being deliberately delayed to drive it from public view. Malaysia's daily newspapers rarely mention the case's latest developments, and it is unprecedented in Malaysian judicial history that a murder trial could drag on for seven months and still not give the defense an opportunity to present its case.  Such an environment has led many to conclude that the case was too politically sensitive to yield a verdict before the anticipated general elections." 

A January 2007 cable called attention to Razak Baginda's affidavit confirming that he sought the help of Musa Safri, later identified by reporters as Najib's aide-de-camp, in ridding him of the jilted woman, and in other cables pointed out that Musa had never been called for questioning.

In another cable, dated May 16, 2007, Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh, a deputy home affairs minister in former Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi's cabinet told US Embassy officials that he was "certain that government prosecutors would limit their trial activities to the murder itself and the three defendants; prosecutors would not follow up on allegations of related corruption or other suspects." 

In a Jan. 27, 2007 cable, marked "Secret," embassy officials wrote that "In December we heard from one of (Anwar's) lawyers that Razak Baginda's wife was in contact with Anwar and Wan Azizah, suggesting one possible source for Anwar's information."  

Razak Baginda's wife, during one of his first appearances in court, screamed that her husband "doesn't want to be prime minister." That was taken by observers as a reference to the fact that Najib reportedly had been having an affair with Altantuya but passed her on to Razak Baginda because it would be unseemly to have a mistress when he succeeded Abdullah Badawi as premier.  Najib has offered to swear on the Koran that he had never met the woman.

However, in July 2008, P Balasubramaniam, a former policeman and private detective who had been hired by Razak Baginda to protect him from Altantuya, filed a sworn statement saying he had been told by the accused man that Najib not only knew the murdered woman but had an affair with her and introduced her to him, passing her on because he did not want the onus of having a mistress in the event that he would become prime minister.

In a telephone interview on May 9, Anwar, however, told Asia Sentinel that Razak Baginda's wife was not the source of his knowledge of Najib's connection and that instead he had been told of the connection by Setev Shaariibuu, Altantuya's father, who said he had wished to present evidence of Najib's involvement, but was not allowed to do so.  Multiple attempts to contact Setev by Asia Sentinel have been unsuccessful.

Almost immediately after he made the statement, Balasubramaniam was picked up and driven to a police station, where he was forced to withdraw the statement and write a new one saying Razak Baginda had told him nothing of the sort. Balasubramaniam fled Malaysia for India.  He later said Najib's brother, Nizam,  and wife, Rosmah Mansor, had met with him and that he was offered RM5 million (US$1.48 million) to forget his statement connecting Najib to Altantuya. Balasubramaniam displayed a flock of checks drawn on the account of an associate of Najib's wife.  The former private detective has made a a series of statements from outside the country about Najib's involvement. 

A February 2008 cable from Political Section Chief Clark gives a hint that Abdullah Badawi himself may have been trying to get rid of Najib by forcing Razak Baginda to implicate him in the murder.
 
"In the latest turn of the ongoing Altantuya murder trial (reftels), accused political insider Abdul Razak Baginda, who has remained calm and composed through most of the proceedings, unleashed an emotional tirade shortly after the February 20 noon recess on the trial's 90th day," Clark wrote. "Referring to the Prime Minister by his nick-name 'Pak Lah,' Razak reportedly exclaimed:  'You can die, Pak Lah! (in Malaysian - Matilah kau, Pak Lah!) I'm innocent!' according to unpublished journalist accounts.  

"Local  newspapers and the government news service Bernama reported the fact of the outburst, but did not print Razak's  statements.  The short-lived exception was the English language newspaper The Sun, which included the quotations from Razak in its early morning February 21 edition.  Sources at newspaper confirmed to us in confidence that the Ministry of Internal Security compelled The Sun to withdraw and recall thousands of copies of their first run paper in which the original quote was included.  Prime Minister Abdullah serves concurrently as Minister of Internal Security." 

During the trial, Clark wrote, Razak Baginda, "appeared uneasy throughout the morning session of court on February 20.  Razak's father, Abdullah Malim Baginda had whispered something to him shortly before the trial had begun for the morning and apparently upset the accused.  Razak had remained quiet throughout the morning hearings, but just after the noon recess was called and as he was leaving the courtroom he kicked and banged the door and yelled "You can die, Pak Lah! Die, Pak Lah!  I am innocent.  I am innocent."  He was later seen crying before his lawyer while his mother attempted to comfort him." 

"Speculation is rife in Malaysia's on-line community concerning what it was that set off Razak Baginda  outburst, including conspiracy theories alleging the Prime Minister's office had urged Razak to implicate Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak …in return for  sparing Razak a guilty verdict and its mandatory death sentence," officials wrote.   

The cable goes on to write, "Regardless, the Internal Security Ministry would want to limit any possibly inflammatory reference to the Prime Minister at the trial, and particularly at this juncture due to the proximity of Malaysia's general election to be held on March 8.  Any connection between the Prime Minister and the murder trial would be scandalous.  The GOM (government of Malaysia) reportedly has worked hard to 'drive (the case) from public view' … and is not about to allow the case to influence the coming elections."