Altantuya Comes Back to Haunt Malaysia
A second top Malaysian lawyer is expected to be called soon before the committee and is expected to say that he too had been approached by an individual close to Najib to write the fake statement, but that he had refused to do so.
John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel
A spectacular murder covered up by the government comes alive again
Nearly eight years after her gruesome murder in a jungle clearing near Kuala Lumpur, Mongolian translator and party girl Altantuya Shaariibuu is coming back to haunt Malaysian Prime Minister Najib, his wife, Rosmah Mansor, and other members of Najib’s family.
The action is taking place in a Malaysian Bar Council three-person Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board committee that is seeking to determine whether one of the country’s top lawyers acted improperly in helping to force a now-dead private investigator, Perumal Balasubramaniam, known as Bala, to recant a sworn statement tying Najib to the murdered woman.
The lawyer, Cecil Abraham, is a Tan Sri, one of the highest honorifics passed out by the king to praise prominent citizens. Americk Sidhu, a lawyer for Bala, who died of a heart attack in March of 2013, is charging on Bala’s behalf that Abraham, at the behest of Najib, his wife and others, wrote a statement for Bala to sign which said Najib had never had anything to do with Altantuya.
The tribunal is now hearing charges of unprofessional conduct against Abraham. A second top Malaysian lawyer is expected to be called soon before the committee and is expected to say that he too had been approached by an individual close to Najib to write the fake statement, but that he had refused to do so. Although such disciplinary proceedings are usually held in private, lawyers are pressing to open this one to the public because of what they called the overriding public interest in the matter. They might get it. The Bar Council is independent of the government and its top members traditionally have been regarded as hostile to it.
Read more at: http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/altantuya-shaariibuu-haunt-malaysia/
