RPK says TV3 interview to renew focus on Altantuya murder

RPK speaks about the TV3 interview he gave two months ago in Australia

(The Malaysian Insider) – Raja Petra Kamarudin has defended his interview aired with TV3, saying that it will renew focus on allegations surrounding the Altantuya Shariibuu murder.

He also explained that he was repeating his reports, and that his June 18, 2008 sworn statement was actually against a military intelligence officer and not Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

“I realise the danger of recorded interviews as opposed to live shows like the TV1 Blog programme. But I know I can handle even the toughest interviews.

“After all, what I would be saying is going to be the truth anyway. So why worry? Certainly they are going to spin it but then that is a risk I would have to take,” the Malaysia Today news portal editor wrote in the website today.

The pro-government TV3 ran excerpts of the hour-long interview last night, touching a firestorm of comments questioning the timing ahead of the Sarawak election this weekend.

TV3 said it will run another part of the interview in its prime-time Buletin Utama news programme tonight.

“Undoubtedly, a storm is going to be created. I knew that. But maybe I need that storm so that the story of my statutory declaration can be brought back to focus and corrected.

“Somehow, the statutory declaration I signed and what I actually said in that statutory declaration has been lost. And it has been lost because the focus is on my so-called allegation rather than what I actually said in the statutory declaration,” Raja Petra said.

The blogger was interviewed in Perth during his tour of Australia last month after spending nearly two years in the United Kingdom which he fled to avoid court trials for defamation. All cases against him have been dropped.

Raja Petra also stressed he did not accuse Rosmah or two army officers were at the scene of Altantuya’s murder in late 2006.

“Most seem to not understand that I did not make any allegation against Rosmah or the two Lt-Kols. That was not what my statutory declaration said.

“I made an allegation against a third Lt-Kol. And this third Lt-Kol is Lt-Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin, the number two in the special branch of the military intelligence,” he wrote.

In his column, he said he met Nik Azmi Nik Daud, then an aide to Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, in June 2008 before making his SD.

Raja Petra said Nik Azmi told him that “Lt-Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin… has a confidential report that proves that Rosmah, Lt-Kol Aziz Buyong and his wife Lt-Kol Norhayati Hassan were present at the scene of Altantuya’s murder at the time she was murdered.”

But he also added that this was not a new revelation and that he has been saying so repeatedly since signing the statutory declaration.

“I told TV3 that what I am about to say is not something new. I have written and spoken about this many times before. I have even made my statement to the police during my ISA detention. And this statement was recorded by the police.

“But what I told the police has been hidden from public view. What I said has been ignored totally. Instead, the story of my allegation against Rosmah and the husband and wife Lt-Kols is what is repeated again and again by all and sundry,” he said.

Raja Petra was arrested under the Internal Security Act following his sworn statement.

After he was released, he was charged with criminal defamation and sedition, prompting him to flee with his family to Britain.