Wednesday May 14, 2008 MYT 8:29:24 PM

I never met or knew Altantuya, Najib tells Parliament

By ELIZABETH LOOI

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak reiterated in Parliament Wednesday that he had never met nor knew murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He o said he did not want to make any further comments on the matter as the hearing of the case was still going on.

"I know that some of the Dewan Rakyat members are concerned about the court case of the murder of the Mongolian woman, and I also know that there are some members who deliberately tried to link my name to the case,"

"Let the court play its role and carry out its responsibility to uphold justice in this country without any party interfering," he said

The Deputy Prime Minister, who is also Defence Minister said the Government had never paid anyone commission for the procurement of two Scorpene submarines and 18 Sukhoi fighter jets.

He said both projects involved only direct negotiations between Malaysian firms and the countries that sold the submarines and the fighter planes.

"On the allegation made by Yang Berhormat Permatang Pauh (Opposition Leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail) that Syarikat Perimekar Sdn Bhd had received a commission of 114.96mil Euros in the procurement of Scorpene submarines, the ministry wants to stress that the Government has not and had never paid any commission directly or indirectly to the company.

"On the procurement of Sukhoi, I also want to stress that the Government had never paid any commission to Syarikat IMT (M) Defence Sdn Bhd as alleged," Najib said in his winding up speech on the motion of thanks on the Royal Address in the Dewan Rakyat .

On the issue of National Service, Najib said the Government would continue with the programme as it promoted unity although there were accidents and death cases

He said since the programme started in 2004, there had been 16 death cases, of which 11 trainees died in their camps.

"The people are very happy with the programme despite the death cases. Their response is proven in the increased number of voluntary trainees from 929 last year to 1,137 this year," said Najib.