Najib, too, wants Altantuya’s murder reinvestigated: Lawyer
(Malaysiakini) – Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak wants the police to reinvestigate the murder case of Altantuya Shaariibuu, according to his lawyer.
His attorney, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, told this to reporters today in the wake of a statutory declaration (SD) by former police officer Azilah Hadri, who is now accusing Najib of pulling the strings in the murder.
He claimed that Azilah, who is on death row for the 2006 murder, was being used by some people in an attempt to put Najib behind bars.
“Well, I hope they reinvestigate. My client (Najib) wants them to reinvestigate. For one purpose – we want to know who put Azilah in this mode of perjury. Who is behind this perjury?
“Because we don’t think it is Azilah alone. Azilah we understand is desperate. But who is behind Azilah in trying to put my client … ,” he said when met at the Palace of Justice this morning.
Shafee was there to file an application to intervene in Azilah’s application to review the Federal Court’s ruling in 2015 which upheld his conviction and death sentence for murdering Altantuya.
For the record, Azilah had filed the SD as part of his affidavit in the review application.
According to Shafee, the SD by Azilah was allegedly orchestrated by some people after earlier attempts to jail Najib for SRC International and 1MDB cases were not going according to expectation.
“I think they can see that the cases of SRC and 1MDB are not going far in terms of speed.
“Quite obviously the judges are doing a wonderful job, it is not going as fast as some people want it. They wanted to put my client in jail from day one, so I suppose this is another attempt.
“This is a desperate act by some people to victimise my client who has become very popular.”
‘Content of SD laughable’
Shafee also had a cynical take on the content of Azilah’s SD, which he called “laughable”.
He said it is unbelievable that Najib would demonstrate to Azilah (above) with a slit-the-throat gesture, which Azilah claimed the then deputy prime minister did when ordering the murder.
“When I read some of these facts, I thought they were quite laughable that my client, a former DPM and a former PM, could tell Azilah not only you should arrest this woman, but you should kill her.
“And (in the order) killing her, he (Azilah) said in his SD that Najib apparently said do this (slit throat motion).
“It is completely laughable. And this is apparently repeated by Razak Baginda.
“This is unbelievable, as unbelievable as claiming a cow jumped over the moon. This is how ridiculous it is.”
In his SD dated Oct 17, 2019, Azilah claimed that Najib ordered him to “arrest and destroy” Altantuya, whom the then deputy prime minister described as a “foreign spy” and a “threat to national security.”
“I asked the DPM (deputy prime minister) what he meant by arrest and destroy the foreign spy, he responded: ‘Shoot to kill’, indicating it with a ‘slit the throat’ gesture,” said Azilah, who is a former police Special Action Unit (UTK) commando.
