Thursday, May 31, 2012

Scorpene probe: Nurul Izzah wants Parliament to debate defence secrets leak


KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar will next month demand Parliament discuss developments in the ongoing Scorpene submarine case, including yesterday's discovery that national defence secrets have been sold to the French.
The Lembah Pantai MP said in a statement today that she will move an emergency motion in the House on the matter, noting that if the discovery was indeed true, it poses a grave threat to Malaysia's national security and sovereignty.
Nurul (picture) added that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should issue an immediate statement on the issue.
"The people have the right to demand the Prime Minister to issue an immediate statement on this matter as if it is true, then it not only places the operations of the Scorpene submarines at risk but also other possible defence secrets, which may have been sold to foreign agents.
"If there is failure to immediately respond to these allegations, then Malaysians must be prepared as the nation's national security and sovereignty has been compromised," she said.
French lawyer Joseph Breham had yesterday revealed that a highly-confidential government document on the Malaysian Navy’s evaluation of the Scorpene submarines it planned to buy was sold by Terasasi (Hong Kong) Ltd to French defence giant DCNS for €36 million (RM142 million).
Abdul Razak Baginda , a former think-tank head who was at the centre of a 2006 investigation into the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, is listed as a director of Terasasi with his father, Abdul Malim Baginda.
The company was previously incorporated on June 28, 2002 as Kinabalu Advisory and Support Services Ltd, according to the Hong Kong Companies Registry.
The data was purportedly for “commercial engineering” works, Breham, who is acting for activist group Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) in an ongoing inquiry in Paris, had told a news conference in Bangkok yesterday.
Suaram had filed a complaint against DCNS in a French court last month. The court’s two-man panel has asked for the shipmaker’s financial transaction reports, Breham said.
“They were given information which is already available on the Internet and newspapers, except for this one document,” Breham said, referring to investigating magistrates at the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance.
“It was a secret document by the Malaysian Navy, an evaluation for the order of the submarines, which is a highly confidential report,” he added.
The news conference was held in Bangkok as Breham was unable to get a proper visa to enter Malaysia, news portal Malaysiakini reported today.
Malaysia paid RM6.7 billion in 2009 for the two submarines of which RM574 million was earmarked for co-ordination and support services for Perimekar Sdn Bhd, owned by Abdul Razak.
Abdul Razak is being sought as a witness in the French case.

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