There are many ways to skin a cat, especially a fat cat like former Prime Minister Najib Razak. Already hit with 42 charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), money laundering and abuse of power – a world record for a former prime minister – he was also slapped with a tax bill for an extra RM1.5 billion of undeclared taxable income of close to RM4 billion between 2011 and 2017.
While the trial of his 1MDB scandal is ongoing, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is still trying to recover the RM1.5 billion in unpaid taxes, including the RM2.6 billion (US$681 million) “donation” that the former premier has claimed was a donation received from Saudi Arabia royal family, a claim that could not be fully and officially substantiated.
But stealing money and tax evasion was considered child’s play in a country like Malaysia, where corruption and money laundering were common practices of the day. Mr. Najib went beyond just plundering national coffers. The despicable man, who lost his power in the May 2018 General Election, was also involved in the gruesome murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In what appears to be another feather in Najib’s cap, one of two ex-police commandos convicted of Altantuya’s murder, has issued a shocking “Statutory Declaration (SD)” dated October 17, 2019 – admitting that it was Najib Razak, who gave him the “shoot to kill” order verbally to terminate the Mongolian mother of two during a meeting on October 17, 2006.
According to Malaysiakini portal, the SD made by the convicted killer Azilah Hadri says he was merely following an explicit “shoot to kill” order as a member of the elite special action force (UTK) of the police. The ex-commando also exposed that Najib told him to destroy the Altantuya’s body and dispose of the evidence as she was a “foreign spy” and posed a threat to Malaysia’s security.
Azilah said in his SD – “I asked the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister Najib) what was meant by arrest and destroy the foreign spy and DPM responded ‘shoot to kill’ while showing the sign of slitting the throat. When asked what was meant by destroying the foreign spy’s body, DPM replied ’Destroy the foreign spy’s body to get rid of traces.’”
“After discussing methods to destroy the body, DPM ordered me to blow up the foreign spy’s body using explosives,” – said Azilah. When the police commando told Najib, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, that a police report had to be made on the matter, Najib disagreed and argued that the matter could not be made public as it involved a threat to the national security.
Najib apparently told Azilah that the foreign spy was a very dangerous woman due to many national secrets she knew. Najib had also lied to the elite police commando that Altantuya was so cunning that she would claim to be pregnant, hence she cannot be trusted. The deputy premier gave the instruction to destroy of the spy’s body with explosives, presumably military-grade C4.
Azilah was briefed by Najib – “The foreign spy could not approach the DPM (Najib) due to the tight security and therefore the spy threatened the DPM’s special officer instead.” That special officer referred to was Abdul Razak Baginda, a former political analyst and close associate of Najib Razak. Baginda, Altantuya’s former lover, was charged in 2006 but unexpectedly acquitted in 2008 of the murder.
The murder scandal started in June 2002 when the Malaysian government signed a €1 billion (US$961 million; RM3.4 billion) contract with Armaris (now DCNS) and Spanish naval shipbuilder Izar (now Navantia) for 2 SSK Scorpenes submarines. Soon after the delivery, embarrassingly, one of the French submarines could not dive. However, the real scandal had just begun.
The dramatic kidnap and murder of Altantuya soon revealed how the model and translator was linked to €114 million (RM500 million) in “commission” for the purchase of the Scorpenes sub. The motive for Altantuya’s death – she wished to claim US$500,000 being her share of the kickbacks for the submarines deal. Razak Baginda, however, had refused to be blackmailed – leading to the murder.
As expected, Najib today rubbished the claims by Azilah, describing him as a desperate man trying to escape the gallows. He argued – “Why did this information not come out earlier, and only now, more than a decade after her death?” Seriously, if that’s the best Najib could do, he’s screwed. The simple answer – Najib can only be exposed now because he’s powerless after losing the 2018 general election.
In the same breath, the defeat of Najib regime last year also opened the possibility of the return of another ex-police commando – Sirul Azhar Umar – who is currently being held in the Villawood detention centre in Sydney ever since the convicted killer was arrested in Queensland for overstaying his tourist visa. His ability to escape to Australia is still a mystery until today.
Australia had refused to send Sirul (a former bodyguard of Najib) back to Malaysia because the country’s extradition legislation does not allow a person to be surrendered to another country for an offence punishable by death, unless the country (in this case Malaysia) has given Australia an undertaking that the death penalty will not be carried out.
Back in 2015, when Al-Jazeera unleashed a damaging documentary – “Murder in Malaysia” – the journalist, Mary Ann Jolley, was deported by 5 Malaysian immigration officers and a man in military outfit, clearly under the instruction of Najib administration. Amazingly, the same journalist would personally grill Najib in Oct 2018 until the crook ran away from an interview arranged by himself.
The Australian-based journalist revealed on the Al-Jazeera weekly that besides two convicted killers from the elite protection squad, namely Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, there was a third person at the murder scene. That man was none other than Altantuya’s ex-lover Razak Baginda, a close aid or rather a proxy of ex-PM Najib Razak.
According to court testimony, Ms. Shaariibuu begged for her life and that of her unborn child, but she was shot twice in the head anyway, wrapped in C4 military-grade plastic explosives and blown up in Kuala Lumpur’s suburbs on October 19, 2006. And according to Sirul, it was the scumbag Razak Baginda whopulled the trigger and shot the Mongolian.
The question which still begs an answer is – why would Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar (both formerly with the police’s Special Action Unit, UTK) abducted the pregnant Altantuya in front of Baginda’s Kuala Lumpur home and taken to a forest in Subang, Shah Alam, where she was shot twice and her body was blown up, despite the fact that both commandos never knew the Mongolian woman?
Al-Jazeera also revealed how ex-PM Najib informed his buddy Baginda that he had a sexual relationship with Altantuya (also known as Aminah). And it was Najib Razak, who had introduced Altantuya to Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore. Hence, it is fair to assume that after Najib got tired of Altantuya, he passed her to Baginda like a sex toy, after which both became lovers.
In fact, private investigator and witness Balasubramaniam’s Statutory Declaration did mention about Najib informing Baginda that Altantuya was susceptible to anal intercourse, suggesting that the prime minister had lied when he said he didn’t know her. And how did Najib know about the anal sex thingy, unless he had experienced it with Altantuya prior, right?
Al-Jazeera also exposed how Balasubramaniam was threatened by military intelligence into retracting his first statutory declaration which implicated Najib Razak, in exchange for RM5 million and temporarily “disappear” out of the country, until the then-Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak officially becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia on 3 April 2009.
Sirul and Azilah were charged with the murder and sentenced to death in 2009 but Sirul has denied carrying out the killing, saying that he was acting on orders from his superiors and was only involved in driving Altantuya to the scene. Now, it’s Azilah turn – exposing that he received the “kill and destroy” order from Najib Razak.
No motive for the killing was ever established and key witnesses were never called during the trial. The prosecution during Najib regime deliberately failed to call a material witness – DSP Musa Safri – a former aide de camp of Najib. Interestingly, in the latest statutory declaration, Azilah acknowledges the roles played by Abdul Razak Baginda and Musa Safri in the gruesome murder of Altantuya.
Musa Safri, a military officer acting as a confidential assistant to then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, would only carry instruction on behalf of his boss. Not even Razak Baginda could instruct Mr. Musa to do a task. Therefore, Azilah’s revelation provides the missing piece – who was the ultimate person who issued the order to kill Altantuya and destroy her body beyond recognition.
That explains why Musa Safri was never called in the trial as a material witness. To do so would mean Musa would reveal that the instructions came from none other than Najib Razak himself. It would be absolutely interesting to see if Musa Safri would be the next person to testify against Najib Razak. Unlike money laundering, being accused of murder is a different ball game altogether.
More importantly, will the Mahathir administration continue to grant Najib the special privilege of walking a free man, despite the latest statutory declaration that the former crook was also a murderer? Sure, pro-Najib cybertroopers, propagandists and bloggers will definitely scream their lungs out that Azilah and the government are fabricating things to nail Najib.
Still, the fact remains that both the ex-police commandos had absolutely zero motive to kill and explode the body of a pregnant woman they didn’t know, but both Najib Razak and Razak Baginda have every reason to exterminate the Mongolian beauty. But Najib had sworn in a mosque that he did not know Altantuya and has nothing to do with her murder.
Interestingly, 10 years after Najib sworn in the mosque, his Barisan Nasional ruling government lost power for the first time in 61 years since the country’s independence in 1957. Perhaps his penchant for telling lies, even in the holy mosque, was the reason he lost power last year, which in turn allows Azilah the opportunity to expose him as the despicable murderer.
Mr. Najib and his supporters have nothing to worry if Azilah’s SD was nothing but lies and fabrications. He can always hire his hotshot lawyer Shafee Abdullah to quash the allegations and charges. Mr. Azilah is only seeking a retrial in an open court to provide full evidence of the 2006 murder. But it appears more skeletons in the closet are about to be revealed. Najib’s worst nightmare has just begun.
– Finance Twitter
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