Najib rejects Altantuya murder mastermind claims: ‘I never met her, I’m innocent of this crime’
Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told the High Court here today that he never instructed former members of the Special Action Unit (UTK) Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar to kill Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006, as he had never met the Mongolian woman.
(MMO) – He denied being the mastermind behind the gruesome murder.
“At the material time, I was deputy prime minister. I had never met her, and I’m innocent of this crime. I know Abdul Razak Baginda. He was the defence analyst working under my administration at the material time. That is how I know him.
“He was involved in buying submarines from the French submarine maker, which involved a billion-dollar deal for the nation,” he said.
The former prime minister, 72, said this when queried by his counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, during the hearing of his defamation suit against former attorney general (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas and GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn Bhd over alleged defamatory statements made about the murder of the Mongolian woman in a book, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness.
When asked about the woman, Najib said: “She was definitely not one of those who was in the higher echelons of the deal. As I know from media reports, she was a purported interpreter. I do not know details of their relationship, but I have come to know later that they were in a romantic relationship”.
He said that Thomas, as the author of the book, should have verified the facts before proceeding with publishing it.
