PKR rejects AG's Altantuya explanation, demands response from SILENT Umno-BN leaders

KUALA LUMPUR - As expected, Attorney General Gani Patail has deflected blame for the Appeals Court's controversial acquittal of the Altantuya killers, insisting there was nothing wrong with the prosecution's handling of the case and there had been no need to summon Prime Minister Najib Razak's aide-de-camp Musa Safri to testify.

"While respecting the Court of Appeal, the Attorney-General's Chambers is dissatisfied with the decision. Non-direction or misdirection by the trial court is not the fault of the prosecution,” Gani said in a statement today.

"As far as Deputy Superintendent of Police Musa Safri is concerned, we maintain that his testimony had no relevance at all as the whole narrative of the prosecution's case had been unfolded in the trial below. Hence, an appeal to the Federal Court will be filed."

Trial was a charade to protect the guilty

However, the AG's explanation and assurance were dismissed by members of the Opposition.

"We expected this. From the beginning the trial of Altantuya's killers was a charade, intended to hide the truth and protect the guilty. From the beginning the trial was about protecting Najib Razak, who was linked to the Altantuya case through Razak Baginda and the Scorpene submarines deal," PKR MP for Padang Serai N Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.

The Court of Appeal had this morning acquitted two former policemen, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, who had been sentenced to hang for killing Mongolian national Altantuya Shaaribuu in 2006. In their judgment, the three-man Appellate panel said the failure to call Musa hurt the prosecution's case.

The duo were former bodyguards of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, while Altantuya is suspected to have been a former lover of the Malaysian leader.

Altantuya's father, who has demanded that the Mongolian government take action against Malaysia, has said his daughter told him she was coming to Kuala Lumpur to see Najib because she had "something to decide with him".

Musa Safri introduced Azilah, Sirul to Baginda

The complex case also has links to the Malaysia government's acquisition of 2 Scorpene submarines in 2002 which Najib, as the then Defense minister had hammered through. Altantuya had told a private investigator hired by Najib's close associate Razak Baginda she was here to collect her share of commission for the submarines.

However, the private investigator - the late P.I. Bala - had said Baginda did not want to pay her and sought Musa's help to stop Altantuya from harassing him and his family.

It was Musa who introduced Azilah and Sirul to Baginda and the two men had picked up Altantuya from outside Baginda's house, taking her to a jungle clearing in Selangor where they shot her twice in the head before exploding her body with C4 explosives so as to prevent identification. Sirul has said Altantuya told him she was pregnant when she begged him for her life.

Crawling with Najib's men but not a squeak from Umno-BN leaders

Najib and Rosmah have denied involvement in the Altantuya murder but have failed to stem the widespread speculation that they had ordered her killing to cover up corruption in the Scorpenes submarines acquisition.

The persistent rumors are due mainly to the case "crawling with Najib's men". From Musa Safri, to the two former bodyguards Azilah and Sirul, to Razak Baginda, his political aide Nasir Saffar, Rosmah's former confidante Deepak Jaikishan and Najib's own brother Nazim, there are simply too many connections to the Malaysian leader to ignore.

Surendran, a human rights lawyer, also slammed the deafening from the BN government. Apart from the AG's statement, neither Najib or any or his minister or Umno party colleagues have dared to venture any comment on the decision that has roiled the country. 

"So now, no one has been found guilty or punished for Altantuya's murder. Is this justice? It is a national embarrassment and failure of justice. The BN government must answer for this," said Surendran.

Lawyer Karpal Singh, who was holding a watching brief for Altantuya’s family, has said he intends to subpoena Musa and Najib as witnesses in a RM100 million civil suit filed by Altantuya's father, Setev Shaariibuu, against Razak Baginda, Azilah, Sirul and the Malaysian government over his daughter’s death.

Malaysia Chronicle