Hanipa: Who lied, Najib or Altantuya's cousin?

De facto Deputy Law Minister Mohamed Hanipa Maidin said either former prime minister Najib Razak or the cousin of the slain Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu had lied.

He said Najib had claimed he swore in a mosque that he never met Altantuya, while her cousin testified under oath that she saw the photographs of Altantuya with two men - Abdul Razak Baginda and the "deputy prime minister" named Razak.

"So, the logic is that either one of them had lied. The cousin who testified in court under oath or the former prime minister who accused her of lying. We don't know," he said in a statement today.

"The difference is that (when) he accused the cousin of lying, it was done outside the court and not under oath," he said.

Yesterday, Altantuya's cousin Burmaa Oyunchimeg, who is a witness in the RM100 million civil suit brought by Altantuya's family, reaffirmed that she saw the image of Altantuya with two men.

Najib then reiterated that he had never met Altantuya. 

"If the cousin lied under oath in court, it's called 'perjury'. If the former premier lied after he swore in the mosque, it is called 'sin'," said Hanipa (photo), who is also Sepang MP.

"In this world, both situations happened - people lie although under oath and people lie in the mosque even after swearing. Forgive (me), I'm just making a statement," he added.

Altantuya's gruesome murder in 2006 has haunted Najib for the past 13 years, despite his repeated denials of any involvement and being cleared by the authorities.

In January 2015, the Federal Court overturned an earlier Court of Appeal decision, and sentenced former police special operations force personnel Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar to death for the murder.

However, Sirul had fled to Australia when the Court of Appeal acquitted the pair.

He is now being held at an immigration detention centre in Sydney since Australian law forbids deporting those who face the death sentence in their home countries.

Razak Baginda, who was accused of abetting the two former police officers in her murder, was acquitted. - Mkini