The Murder of Altantuya

Written by John Berthelsen
THURSDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2012

Six years on, troubling questions remain about the Mongolian beauty's death, and who ordered it

It will be six years tomorrow since bodyguards for now-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak dragged the Mongolian translator and party girl Altantuya Shaariibuu out of a car in a patch of jungle near the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Shah Alam.

As she begged for her life and apparently that of her unborn child, they knocked her unconscious, then shot her twice in the head.

That was Oct. 19, 2006. According to court testimony, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, members of the elite Unit Tindakan Khas, both assigned to Najib’s office, then wrapped Altantuya’s body in C4 plastic explosives and blew her up, possibly to mangle her remains so badly that the fetus would be destroyed.

Sirul Azhar was interrogated by police shortly after the murder was discovered. He was informed that anything he said could be held against him, in accordance with the law. In his cautioned statement, as his confession was called in Malaysia, he told authorities he and Azilah had been offered RM100,000 to kill the woman and her two companions, who were causing highly public embarrassment for Abdul Razak Baginda, Najib’s best friend. The 28-year-old Mongolian woman, in a letter found after her death, wrote that she was sorry she had been blackmailing Razak Baginda.

If French police records are to be believed, Razak Baginda was allegedly central to a massive bribery case in which a total of nearly €150 million in payments were steered to two Razak Baginda companies, Perimekar Sdn Bhd and Terasasi Hong Kong Ltd.

As Asia Sentinel reported earlier this year, records seized by the French police show that former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and the French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe were aware of the transactions. Memos obtained by Asia Sentinel show the French expected at least part of the money to be steered to the United Malays National Organization, Malaysia’s biggest ethnic political party.

Read the rest here:The Murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu

Scorpene Never Dies

It sounds like a Bond movie.

Aside, Tomorrow Never Dies starred Michelle Yeoh, and Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond.

But the truth is, no Bond movie could potentially be as scandalous and licentious as the Scorpene story of Malaysia.

The Scorpene story involves plenty of sex, sharing of women between at least two high profile men, corruption of a monumental scale, the sale of highly confidential naval information to the French, the dramatically explosive (no pun intended) murder of a Mongolian woman.

Like I said, no Bond movie could come close to that sort of filth, and Bond movies are generally not known for child-friendly scenes.

Along came SUARAM, who hired French lawyer Joseph Breham to unearth the facts. He came up with a lot of worms. Read a summary of it HERE.

Now the Malaysian officials involved, namely the BN government, are livid with rage as this will no doubt affect the way people vote when they hit the polling booths soon.

The best way to get rid of this mess is to silence SUARAM. And what better way than to harass, intimidate and bully SUARAM with bogus probes.

There was a time when Malaysians could easily be intimidated. A time when the rule was not to rock the boat as long as the economy was going fine.

Times have changed. The “Scorpene Never Dies” Action Team is determined to help SUARAM keep the Scorpene issue afloat and to get the Najib administration to stop its obviously politically-motivated investigation against SUARAM.

A candlelight vigil is on:

Date: 25 Sept 2012 (Tuesday)
Time: 8:00PM
Venue: Dataran Merdeka

As usual, the authorities will deem it illegal.

As if anyone cares. Malaysians who care about their country will be there.

Say What????

Scorpene probe not a serious matter, says foreign minister

Ahmad Fadli KC
4:09PM Jun 11, 2012

The probe by French prosecutors into the alleged corruption over the purchase of the two Scorpene submarines is not a serious issue that Malaysia should now focus on, said Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

"This is not a serious matter that we need to follow, and it is being played up by certain parties," he told reporters after attending a luncheon with representatives of Asean nations in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was asked about Malaysia's preparations to face the case currently being investigated in Paris.

Anifah said that Malaysia will make the necessary preparations to face the trial when they are needed.

"So far we have not received any information from the (French) embassy. But if necessary, we are ready to defend ourselves," Anifah added.

Local human rights NGO Suaram had filed a suit over alleged kickbacks from French defence contractor DCNS to Malaysian parties in the two submarine purchases.

Suaram's lawyer Joseph Breham recently revealed that French prosecutors found that a company closely-linked to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had sold confidential documents to DCNS for 36 million euro (RM142 million).

The company, Hong Kong-based Terasasi Ltd, belongs to Najib's associate Abdul Razak Baginda and the latter's father Abdul Malim Baginda.

Suaram had also revealed that French investigators found fax correspondence which indicate that Najib could have asked for US$1 billion for another company owned by Abdul Razak, Perimekar, for the duration of the company's stay in France.

This was allegedly in exchange for a meeting with Najib.

Najib has been silent on the matter while the Navy and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, too, had declined comment.

Najib, Abdul Razak and Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid have been named in the list of seven witnesses proposed by Suaram, which was accepted by French investigating judge Roger Le Loire.

However, this does not mean that all seven witnesses will be subpoenaed by the inquiry.