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She (Altantuya) accompanied Abdul Razak to Paris at a time when Malaysia’s defense ministry was negotiating through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which at the time was owned by yet another company called Ombak Laut, wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda, to buy two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris. The contract was not competitive.
The Malaysian ministry of defense paid one billion euros (RM 4.5 billion) to Amaris for the three submarines, for which Perimekar received a commission of 114 million euros (RM 510 million) from Amaris. Deputy Defense Minister Zainal Abdidin Zin told the Dewan Rakyat, Malaysia’s parliament, that the commission was not a bribe to Perimekar. He said the money was paid for “coordination and support services” although the fee amounted to a whopping 11 percent of the sales price for the submarines.
Although Najib denies ever meeting Altantuya, according to the website of the Malaysian Association in France and other websites, on June 11, 2005 Najib gave a press conference in France after having visited the site where the two Scorpene submarines were being built. “As a maritime nation, (the) acquisition will give our navy the added capabilities,” he told the media. Earlier, in Brest, Belgium, Najib had visited a naval base where Malaysian navy submariners were training, and, according to the log of an Australian submariner association, presented jackets made available by Perimekar to the crew.
Najib, Abdul Razak and Altantuya were thus in Europe at exactly the same time. Abdul Razak was one of Najib’s closest friends. Given this closeness and the fact that the three were in Europe at the same time – and that Najib was presenting jackets made available by Perimekar to the crew – it is almost impossible to believe they had not met.
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What makes it doubly unusual was that Abdul Razak was able to go to Najib’s bodyguards and request that she be removed. It seems farfetched that he could order Najib’s bodyguards to kill her without Najib’s permission. Bukit Aman UTK deputy commander Mastor Mohd Ariff, an associate of the two bodyguards, said each subordinate member in the unit was required to carry out their official duties by following all orders of their superiors without question, describing UTK members as “like robots” who would only receive orders from superior officers. Abdul Razak, a civilian and a mere friend Najib’s, was not a superior officer in any sense.
Another big question is why the immigration records of Altantuya and her two Mongolian companions were erased from the government’s immigration files. It is difficult to believe that the bodyguards would be able to call immigration and have those records pulled on their own authority. Abdul Razak, who, although he was obviously influential, didn’t have the authority to have the records removed. So who did?
Why did the lawyer for one of the two police defendants quit, saying his defense strategy had been subjected to pressure?
How did the bodyguards get their hands on C4, a plastic explosive available only to Malaysia’s defense forces and not the police?
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Many other strange things have happened in the courtroom itself:
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Why was the judge who originally took the case removed and a new one suddenly promoted to the high court to take over?
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Why were the prosecution team replaced on the night before the trial?
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Why did both defense and prosecution lawyers seek to strike the testimony of Altantuya’s friend, Burmaa Oyunchimeg, 26, about the photograph of Altantuya with Najib? Why was there no attempt to subpoena the picture, reportedly in the possession of Altantuya’s mother in Mongolia, or to find it?
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Why were the immigration records not subpoenaed to find out who ordered the records pulled to eliminate any record of Altantuya’s presence in the country?
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Why did neither the defense nor the prosecution ask in court about Abdul Razak’s acknowledged trips to France over the defense contracts with Altantuya and who had accompanied them? Why was there no attempt to subpoena records to discover if she had been paid by the Malaysian government?
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Why has there been no attempt to subpoena Abdul Razak’s own travel records on these jaunts?
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Why wasn’t Najib’s chief of staff called to the witness stand, when Razak Baginda said in court that he had asked him to have the bodyguards take care of Altantuya?
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Why has the prosecution sought to impeach two of its own most important witnesses? One of them, Lance Corporal Rohaniza Roslan, was the girlfriend of the senior of the two bodyguards, and she saw Altantuya being taken away in a car by her boyfriend. The other was Yusri Hasan Basri, a UTK member and colleague of defendant Sirul, who had important information on physical evidence in the home of another of the bodyguards?
Source: Asia Sentinel
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