Altantuya murder: Summer sizzle from private eye Bala, MACC
Malaysia Chronicle
An explosive summer encounter in London with potentially far-reaching consequences can be expected if the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission does indeed carry out its plan to interview private investigator P Balasubramaniam sometime in the middle of next month.
“Sorry to be cynical but I’ll believe it when I see it. It is high time that the MACC walk its talk. It has been promising to meet Bala but has it gone to London yet? I mean this is not a new development, it should have already met and interviewed Bala,” PKR Youth Chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin told Malaysia Chronicle.
“It is also high time for the MACC to make public the status of their investigations. No less than Nazim Razak, the brother of our prime minister, has been identified by Bala as the one who gave him money to retract his statutory declaration and flee Malaysia. The MACC cannot close one eye just because the very top people are involved.”
Two men sentenced to hang
Bala’s sensational revelation about the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case has made him the focal point of fresh investigations that may possibly alter the fate of two policemen sentenced to hang for her killing.
Both men were the former bodyguards of Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor. They have insisted they did not know Altantuya and could not have any motive to kill her. In his plea for mitigation, one of the men told the court that he was a mere pawn in a bigger game. However, he named no names or gave further details.
The Altanutya case is a complex tale of greed, international intrigue, sex and homicide. The beautiful 28-year old Mongolian was a translator, who could speak four languages including Russian. Since her 2006 murder, she has been tagged as a modern-day Mata Hari by the foreign press for her role as a go-between in a multi-billion dollar deal between the Malaysian defense ministry and French defense firms DCNS and Thales.
Najib, Rosmah and his close associate Razak Baginda have been implicated in her killing. Altantuya was believed to have been shot in the head and blown up with military-grade explosives after threatening to expose Baginda because he did not pay her a share of the RM570 million kickback obtained from DCNS and Thales.
Currently, there is a separate investigation being conducted by the French police who are probing the corruption angle and if French authorities were involved in inducing Najib – who was then the defense minister – to order two Scorpene submarines worth RM6.7 billion from DCNS and Thales.
Najib and Rosmah have denied ever knowing Altantuya. Baginda, who admitted being her lover, was controversially acquitted of having abetted the two cops in her killing.
