Police: Raja Petra speaking to Bukit Aman officers in Bangkok
(The Malaysian Insider) – Raja Petra Kamarudin is giving his statement voluntarily to Bukit Aman officers at the Malaysian embassy in Bangkok tonight after a request to the visiting blogger, police said today.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar disclosed this after Raja Petra’s Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) announced the Malaysia Today portal editor had been asked to give a statement.
Khalid did not disclose the details of the meeting with Raja Petra at the embassy in South Sathorn Road, Bangkok but it is understood the statement is connected to the blogger’s statutory declaration made on June 18, 2008 over the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case.
The MCLM earlier said embassy officials spoke to Raja Petra in person this afternoon before the group’s launch.
“They told him to head to the Malaysian embassy immediately after the talk. However, he was not arrested,” MCLM said in a statement.
The group added that Raja Petra is scheduled to give his statement at 8pm Thai time, or 9pm Malaysian time tonight. He is in Bangkok with MCLM president Haris Ibrahim.
The Malaysia Today news portal editor hit the headlines a week ago when Umno-linked TV3 television station ran a series of interviews with him over his statutory declaration that linked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and family to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2007.
Najib has denied any links and Raja Petra told TV3 that he never alleged such linkages but asked the police to investigate a military intelligence officer’s assertion about the case.
Raja Petra’s television interview has launched another police investigation into the sworn statement. Police have questioned several people named by Raja Petra over the allegations.
Those named by Raja Petra were Nik Azmi Nik Daud, blogger Din Merican, John Pang and military intelligence officer Lt-Col Azmi Zainal Abidn.
The Ministry of Defence has said Azmi has been suspended from duties pending an internal investigation.
The blogger slipped out of Malaysia in 2009 and remains in self-exile, mainly in the United Kingdom.
