Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is not surprised the Prisons Department denied that convicted killer Azilah Hadri met with a VVIP outside of Kajang prison 10 months ago.
“Do you think they can ever admit?” he asked.
“They (will be) hanging themselves. Of course they (will) deny it,” he told reporters when met at the Kuala Lumpur High Court this afternoon.
Shafee, who is former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s lawyer, was commenting on the Prisons Department’s denial that Azilah was brought out of prison to meet the high-profile individual in February.
The department said the former police special action force (UTK) officer last left prison on April 2015 to attend court proceedings.
Yesterday, Shafee claimed he had “very reliable information” that the meeting took place and is attemping to confirm it. However, he did not reveal the identity of this VVIP.
The lawyer was quizzed on this again today.
Asked if he could name the said VVIP or the exact date of the alleged meeting, he replied: “I cannot. We are working on it. I can’t tell you more than that.”
Azilah (photo) is currently seeking a review of the Federal Court’s decision to reinstate his conviction and death sentence.
He also submitted a statutory declaration claiming he was instructed by Najib, who was the then deputy premier, to terminate Altantuya.
Azilah alleged that Najib and the latter’s close associate Abdul Razak Baginda convinced him that the Mongolian national was a foreign spy who posed a threat to national security.
In 2015, the Federal Court overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit Azilah and another former UTK personnel Sirul Azhar Umar’s conviction.
However, Sirul had fled to Australia after his acquittal and is currently in an immigration detention centre in Sydney.
Razak Baginda was charged with abetting the pair but was later discharged.
Najib has denied Azilah’s allegations, describing it as a complete fabrication and political plot to silence him. – mkini
Prisons Dept rejects Shafee’s claim Azilah met VVIP outside jail
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — Azilah Hadri, the ex-police commando sentenced to death for murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu, never set foot outside the Kajang Prison the entirety of 2019, the Prison Department said today.
The department was responding to lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah’s claim yesterday that Azilah was brought outside the prison in breach of procedures to allegedly meet with a “VVIP”.
“In fact, the person named has never been taken outside of the prison since April 15, 2015.
“The last time he was taken outside the Kajang Prison was on April 15, 2015 for his trial proceedings at the Sepang magistrates court,” the department said in a statement.
There were no records of Azilah ever leaving the prison for any reason since then, it said.
The murder convict was visited 34 times by family members and met with lawyers 15 times over the past year.
It said such visits were consistent with what was allowed to death-row inmates under the Prisons Regulations.
“As such, any statement by any party that Azilah Hadri was brought outside of the Kajang Prison this year to meet a VVIP is completely untrue.”
Azilah made a statutory declaration that was released this week in support of his application for a review of the Federal Court’s 2015 decision to uphold his conviction.
In it, the former commando claimed he was ordered to kill Altantuya directly by Najib, to whom he had been assigned then as part of a protection detail.
Yesterday, Shafee alleged that Azilah was brought outside of the Kajang Prison in February to meet an unnamed VVIP.
In 2009, Azilah and another ex-commando, Sirul Azhar Umar, were found guilty of murdering Altantuya in 2006 but were released in 2013 on appeal.
Sirul, who fled to Australia prior to the 2015 Federal Court ruling, previously dangled a “tell-all” in return for a review of his death sentence but the government rejected this. – malay mail
MKINI / MALAY MAIL
Prison department should just sue this Hot Potato lawyer for this serious allegation if it is not true.
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