Pakatan: Entire Altantuya murder case must be re-opened not just the SDs

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Pakatan Rakyat leaders are likely to demand the re-opening of the entire Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case not just the file on two conflicting statutory declarations following a disclosure by the private investigator who signed them that the second of these was false and aimed at negating the impact of the earlier one that had linked Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor to the killing.

"The latest admission by P Balasubramaniam is a very significant development. He has claimed the first SD was entirely truthful and the second SD was coerced and entirely false. Based on this, the police must re-investigate the entire murder case all the way to the highest level even if it means questioning the PM and his wife," Subang MP and prominent lawyer Sivarasa Rasiah told Malaysia Chronicle.

"We will also point out in Parliament that throughout the Altantuya trial, the two former bodyguards of Najib's were not allowed to be asked the most crucial question, who pulled the trigger? Who ordered the killing? And why have the police allowed the two men to mask their faces in such an odd way?"

Court stopped bodyguards from being asked, "who pulled the trigger?"

Parliament will resume on Monday. On Saturday, Bala had written an open letter to the Attorney-General to protest the decision to close the file on the two SDs he signed within 24 hours of each other in July 2008.

Bala, Nazim Razak

The first SD contained lurid details of Najib's sexual relationship with Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year old Mongolian model, who later also became the lover of Najib's friend Razak Baginda.

The beautiful Altantuya was killed in a jungle clearing in Selangor in 2006 after she came to Malaysia and harassed Baginda for her share of commission from the ministry of defense's purchase of two Scorpene submarines worth some RM6.7 billion.

She is believed to have acted as a go-between Baginda and the French vendor of the submarines. Najib was then the defense minister and had sanctioned the acquisition. He was also accused of corruptly benefiting Baginda with a side-deal worth 214 million euros.

Two of Najib's former bodyguards have since been sentenced to hang for the murder but as Siva pointed, there is widespread public disquiet because they had never met her before and had no motive to kill her. Most Malaysians believe someone "high-up" had ordered the murder.

Why the heavily-covered faces - a conspiracy to let them off?

There is also speculation of further conspiracy to secretly release the two bodyguards and give them new identities. Most Malaysians point to the fact that the police have against regulations allowed both men to heavily cover their faces when leaving the courtroom.

Both bodyguards to hang - always heavily masked

In 2009, Bala came out of hiding and revealed that it was Najib's brother Nazim Razak, Rosmah and her two business associates Deepak and Dinesh Jaikishan, and a police officer Inspector Suresh who had offered him RM5 million to sign the second and false statutory declaration. He was also asked to leave the country immediately, and according to him, the group also threatened his family's safety if he refused.

However, although Malaysian authorities began a probe last year, Minister in the PM's Department Nazri Aziz told Parliament a few days ago the A-G had decided to close the file on the SDs.

"In any other democracy, this would have created not just ripples but major tsunamis. In Malaysia, everyone is so immune to the rubbish that goes on in the upper realms of power that people have actually lost sight of the real and proper picture of what a modern and progressive society ought to be," Bala's lawyer Americk Sidhu told Malaysia Chronicle.

In his open letter to the A-G, Bala had said:

“May I suggest that you re-open this file immediately. I will make it easy for you. Let me admit to you that I did sign a false statutory declaration. Yes. I did. I signed a false statutory declaration. It was the second one, not the first one," Bala said in his letter (Click here for the full letter Bala ups the ante, demands gov't probe).