“But was it a simple
case of jealous scorn? Najib might be able to shed some light on the
matter. But it seems the court has no stomach for calling him to the
stand”.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, a powerful and
seemingly crucial witness, is nowhere near the courtroom as a
sensational murder trial unfolds in Malaysia.
After nearly two weeks of sensational testimony, a Malaysian
court has yet to hear from the powerful man who appears to be linked to
almost everyone in the case of the murdered Mongolian beauty Altantuya
Shaariibuu.
With well-connected political-analyst Abdul Razak Baginda on trial
for his life in the slaying of his jilted girlfriend, petite,
jet-setting part-time translator Altantuya, the court has heard enough
lurid tales of love gone wrong to keep tabloid editors busy for weeks.
But something is missing.
One major figure who appears to be integrally involved with all of
the case’s participants has never been questioned or asked to testify as
a witness in the case: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
The son of the country’s second prime minister, Najib is a friend of
Abdul Razak Baginda’s. The two policemen charged with carrying out the
killing are part of an elite force close to Najib’s office. A third
suspect, who may be a Najib family bodyguard, has been left out of the
case, while the slain woman’s father has repeatedly said his daughter
was privy to details of official corruption .
Abdul Razak’s lover, the Russian-educated Altantuya, who spoke
Russian, Chinese, Japanese and English, was 28 years old when she was
killed on October 19 last year. Her body was abandoned in a patch of
jungle near the suburban town of Shah Alam and blown apart with hand
grenades, according to police. The prosecutor, Tun Abdul Majib, said
evidence would be introduced to show that the deceased’s cause of death
was “probable blast-related injuries.” Other reports said she had been
shot twice in the head before being dumped.
Thursday, Altantuiya’s cousin, Burmaa Oyunchimeg, read a hand-written
letter in court that is believed to have been Altantuya’s final note,
saying she was afraid Abdul Razak was trying to kill her. Writing in
broken English, she said that Abdiul Razak “is powerfull person, he have
money, he have connection in police, in government. He trying to scare
me, trying to kill me.”
At the time of Altantuya’s death, Abdul Razak was head of the
Malaysian Strategic Research Center and a close advisor to Najib. He was
arrested as a suspect in the murder, along with Chief Inspector Azilah
Hadri and Constable Sirul Azhar Umar. The two have usually been
identified in local newspapers as members of an elite police unit, the
Bukit Aman Special Action Force, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry
of Internal Security, which is headed by the Prime Minister, Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi.
In fact, however, Azilah was head of Najib’s personal security team.
In an affidavit filed in December in his defense, Abdul Razak said he
had contacted Azilah through Musa Safri, Najib’s aide-de-camp, to ask
for help in dealing with Altantuya, who by that time was demanding money
to care for a baby she said Abdul Razak had fathered.
Another mysterious figure in the case was a woman constable who was
mentioned in earlier news reports as “helping police in the
investigation into the murder.” She was described as a lance corporal,
in her mid-20s, from the Petaling Jaya District Police Headquarters who
had been in remand. News reports aid the woman helped to put Altantuya
into the red Proton Saga car that drove her away for the last time.
The rumor mill has it that the policewoman is a bodyguard for Najib’s
wife, Rosmah Mansor, although she was never named. The police woman
dropped completely out of the case, however, and was never arrested or
identified; the local papers have stopped mentioning her. The private
investigator hired by Razak, P. Balasubramaniam, testified that that a
man and a woman were with Azilah when Azilah drove Altantuya away.
However, he said he could not recognize the two other individuals.
Najib has been asked at press conferences repeatedly about
allegations of his involvement in the crime, which also has been the
subject of vocal charges by Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime
Minister and current leader of the opposition reform party, Keadilan
Rakyat Malaysia (People’s Justice Party). Najib has just as repeatedly
denied any involvement.
Other questions have arisen over the politically touchy trial. The
case was brought forward by nearly a year, from an original date of
April 2008, leading to conjecture that authorities wanted to get it out
of the way before elections, which are expected to be called sometime
next year.
Also, the prosecution team was abruptly changed the night before the
trial was to begin, leading new prosecutors to plead for more time to
get their case together. Officials said the prosecution team was changed
because the original prosecutor was seen playing badminton with the
judge although critics have repeatedly said virtually every lawyer in
Kuala Lumpur plays badminton with virtually every judge.
In Malaysia, the trial is regarded as yet another test of the
country’s judicial system and is being closely watched for signs of
political influence. (Reformers were jolted this week, meanwhile. when
Eric Chia, a longtime crony of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad,
was freed on embezzlement charges.)
Abdul Razak, who is married and has a teenage daughter, acknowledged
in his affidavit that he had met Altantuya at a gala party in Hong Kong
in 2004 and began a whirlwind affair that included trips to Europe,
expensive gifts and cash payments of US$10,000 at a time. The two became
so close, according to testimony by Ang Chong Beng, a private
investigator hired by the dead woman, that Altantuya said she had
married Abdul Razak in Hong Kong.
But Abdul Razak reportedly tired of the slender, multi-lingual beauty
in 2005, although he continued to give her money. The payments stopped
in 2006, prompting the woman to travel to Malaysia at least twice to
demand US$500,000 from him. Ang, who began testifying Monday, said he
was hired by Altantuya last September to find out whether Abdul Razak
was still in the country.
Ang said Altantuya had told him, “If Razak does not pay her, she
would reveal everything (about her relationship with Razak) to his wife,
his daughter Rowena, TV3, reporters and to the rest of the world.”
Altantuya visited Abdul Razak’s office several times in the company
of two Mongolian friends in an effort to force the political analyst to
pay up. Contradicting earlier testimony that Abdul Razak had never
mentioned harming Altantuya, one of the murdered woman’s friends
testified that they were repeatedly threatened with death. Uuriintuya
Gal-Ochir said neither she nor Altantuya lodged a police report because
they were afraid of Abdul Razak’s connections to police officers. A
private investigator hired by Abdul Razak, P. Balasubramaniam and his
assistant, K. Suras Kumar, harassed them six or seven times after their
arrival in Malaysia on Oct 8 last year, the woman said.
Suras, she said, had threatened to throw her, Altantuya and another
friend, Namiraa Gerelma, out of a hotel room window. In previous
testimony, Balasubramaniam said Suras had had an affair with one of the
women and had been fired. Uuriintuya, however, said the three were so
frightened that they remained standing in their hotel room when Suras
was let in by Altantuya.
In another development, Uuriintuya testified that she remained in
Malaysia after the murder, although Namiraa returned home to Mongolia.
When Uuriintuya attempted to leave later, she said her entry had been
expunged from Malaysian immigration computers. Uuriintuya testified that
Namiraa returned home without a problem, but when she tried to leave
with Altantuya’s father on Nov 24 more than a month after the murder
there was no record of their entering the country.
“Our entry was deleted in the immigration computer,” she testified.
The woman banged the witness stand and added: “There is no record of me
coming to Malaysia through Beijing. Why?”
Altantuya’s father, Stev Shariibuu, a Mongolian academician, has held
numerous press conferences in Kuala Lumpur, repeatedly denying that his
daughter was a part-time model, as she had been portrayed in the press,
but instead was an accomplished translator who had accompanied Abdul
Razak on several business trips. He claimed to reporters that she was
killed because she “knew too much” about deals involving Abdul Razak,
particularly one involving the purchase of submarines for the Malaysian
government through a company in which Abdul Razak holds a significant
interest. The 2002 purchase is reported to have netted Abdul Razak a
healthy commission from the Malaysian government.
That has been denied by Malaysian government officials.
Court testimony over the two weeks has portrayed Altantuya as a woman
carrying on a loud and angry public campaign against the lover who had
jilted her. At one point, Balasubramaniam testified, Razak Baginda was
so frightened of her that he hired him to keep her away and to protect
his daughter as she went to and from school. Balasubramaniam testified
that Altantuya showed up at Abdul Razak’s home, screaming “Razak,
bastard! You come out. I want to speak to you.”
An obviously rattled Abdul Razak sent scores of telephone calls and
text messages to Balasubramaniam that night, pleading for help. Shortly
after that, according to testimony, the police officials appeared and
put Altantuya into the back of the car. She was never seen alive again.
But was it a simple case of jealous scorn? Najib might be able to
shed some light on the matter. But it seems the court has no stomach for
calling him to the stand.
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