I did not give instructions
to kill Altantuya, Najib
tells court
The former prime minister says ex-AG Tommy Thomas hopes to smear his reputation by claiming that he was the mastermind behind the murder.
Testifying in his libel suit against former attorney-general Tommy Thomas, Najib denied giving instructions to two former policemen to commit the crime.
he said when testifying in a suit filed three years ago over the contents of Thomas’s memoir,I have set this on record and taken religious oaths multiple times,
.My Story: Justice in the Wilderness
Publisher GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn Bhd, distributors of the book both locally and internationally, was named as the second defendant.
Najib said he had in December 2019, after attending Friday prayers at Masjid Jamek in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, taken a solemn oath known as
in which he denied issuing instructions for Altantuya, 28, to be killed.sumpah laknat
Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, two former officers with the police Special Actions Unit (UTK), were subsequently convicted for Altantuya’s murder.
Najib said 500 people were present when he declared:
.I have never directed anyone to kill a Mongolian citizen named Altantuya Shaariibuu and I have never met nor do I know the deceased
Testifying on the opening day of the trial before Justice Khadijah Idris, he admitted knowing Abdul Razak Baginda, a defence analyst working for his administration.
he said.He (Razak) was involved in a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase two submarines for the nation’s defence,
He said Altantuya was not one of the individuals who took part in negotiations for the purchase.
he said.As I know from media reports, she was a purported interpreter. Later, I came to know Razak and Altantuya were in a romantic relationship,
Najib was the prime minister between April 2009 and May 2018, while Thomas held office as attorney-general between June 2018 and February 2020.
said Najib.It is clear that he (Thomas) hopes to smear my reputation (by claiming) that I was the mastermind behind the murder which happened in 2006,
He said he was never once implicated in the crime, either in the High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Federal Court.
he said.Azilah’s statutory declaration was also made without any factual basis nor its sources revealed,
Najib is seeking unspecified damages and an order that all defamatory statements be expunged.
In his statement of claim, he said Thomas’s book was published on Jan 31, 2021, and that the allegedly defamatory words were set out in Chapter 42, titled
, which ran from pages 400 to 405.Altantuya
It said a large number of readers would easily identify Najib as the person criminally linked to Altantuya’s murder.
Najib claims the impugned statements have been widely published and republished on the internet, in various blog sites, websites and media posts.
He said the defendants published the book without making any attempt to verify the information with him or affording him an opportunity to comment, the statement of claim read.
It said the statements imply that Najib had blood on his hands and was unfit to hold public office.
It said the book suggested that Najib had a hidden agenda to kill Altantuya and had instructed Azilah and Sirul to eliminate Altantuya as she was said to be a foreign spy and a danger to national interest.
Azilah and Sirul were sentenced to death in 2015, nine years after they killed Altantuya in a forest near Shah Alam and blew her body up with explosives.
Sirul fled to Australia before the Federal Court delivered its final verdict.
Yesterday, an apex court review panel commuted Azilah’s death sentence to 40 years in jail and ordered that he be given 12 strokes of the rotan.
Razak, who was charged with abetment in the murder, was freed at the end of the prosecution’s case in 2008.
In his defence filed on Dec 2, 2021, Thomas denied defaming Najib. He also said he would rely on the defences of fair comment, justification and qualified privilege.
Lawyer Shafee Abdullah represented Najib, counsel Alan Gomez and Mervyn Lai appeared for Thomas, and Ambiga Sreenevasan appeared for the publisher.
The hearing has been adjourned to June 30 next year.
Azilah is on record in a supplementary affidavit to the Federal Court included his 2019 statutory declaration claiming to have received instructions from then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak for Altantuya’s murder.
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Court yesterday commuting Azilah's Death Penalty held that Azilah’s additional affidavit provides a “strong mitigating factor” and reason for the Federal Court to exercise its discretion in favour of Azilah.
Najib has been thrown under the bus.