| Written by Our Correspondent | |
| Monday, 09 March 2009 |
An influential French daily newspaper raises new questions over the murder of a Mongolian translator in Malaysia Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in an explosive article in the French daily newspaper Liberation by reporter Arnad Dubus, is tied ever closer to events that led to the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu. Najib has been selected by the United Malays National Organization as the ethnic political party’s presidential nominee, which is tantamount to his succeeding Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when the latter steps down as prime minister in April.
What follows is a translation of Dubus's article.
Shaaribuu Setev is a bitter and disappointed man. Yet, behind the saddened face of this Mongolian lies a fierce determination. Seated in a sofa in the lobby of an Ulaan Baataar hotel rattled by the gusts of a freezing wind, this 60year-old man is ready to fight. His facial features, hardened by the suffering and the stern climate, and his intense gaze tell all. "My daughter was murdered by Malaysians on Malaysian territory. And they did not have even offer a word of apology," states this professor of psychology at the National University of Mongolia.
The assassination of Setev’s daughter, Altantuya Shaaribuu, took place in October 2006. This was a murder unlike others in a region where business conflicts or petty politics are often settled with a gun. Everything in this case, which started in 2002 when the French Spanish company Armaris concluded the sale of three submarines to the Malaysian government for the amount of €1 billion, is out of the ordinary.
The impact of the "Altantuya case" in France, Malaysia and Mongolia has yet to reach its climax. The murder of the 28 year old Mongolian was the result of a "commission" at the price of €114 million by Armaris to its Malaysian counterpart. This "commission," which was acknowledged by the Malaysian government in front of the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur, has triggered a chain of events that has led to the assassination of Altantuya and the disappearance of several key witnesses in the case.
A report from the Malaysian police, written on 19th November 2006 and which has been kept secret until now (can be read below), reveals dry and precise descriptions as to how the young woman, a member of Asian high society, was killed. In this document, one of the killers, a policeman of the Malaysian Special Branch named Sirul Omar, replied to the questions of an officer at a police station close to the murder scene. "When the Chinese woman saw that I was taking a gun, she begged me to spare her, saying she was pregnant. Azilah (the commanding officer of Sirul) grabbed her and [threw] her on the ground. I immediately shot the left side of her face. Then Azilah took off her clothes and put them in a black plastic bag. Azilah noticed that her hand was still moving. He ordered me to shoot again, which I did", said Sirul.
This is the first confirmation of Altantuya's assassins' identity.
"Then we carried her body into the woods. Azilah wrapped the explosives around her legs, her abdomen and her head, and we exploded her."
The revelation of this report in the French newspaper Liberation is the latest chapter in this colorful and dramatic saga featuring French weapons sellers, a Mongolian shaman, and Malaysian politicians. The case is explosive not only for the Malaysian government, since Deputy Prime minister Najib Razak (who is scheduled to become Prime minister at the end of March) is suspected of having links to the case, but also because it could embarrass the DCNS, a French company specializing in military shipbuilding. The French Spanish company Armaris, which sold two Scorpène and one Agosta submarines to Malaysia in June 2002, was bought by DCNS in 2007.
With her magnetic beauty and sophistication, Altantuya was reminiscent of the troubling image of a Far East Mata Hari. She grew up in Saint Petersburg (Russia), then studied at the Institute of Economic Management in Beijing. Besides speaking English, she was fluent in Russian, Chinese and Korean. The fateful cycle for Altantuya came into gear when she met Abdul Razak Baginda in Hong Kong in 2004. Baginda is a security expert and the director of the Malaysian Strategic Research Center, a pro-government think-tank. The two quickly became romantically involved. Altantuya, nicknamed Tuya by her friends, proved to be a useful assistant, helping Baginda translate from Russian to English.
Whereas Altantuya was young and beautiful, the rich and alluring Baginda was a well known figure of the Kuala Lumpur elite, notably because of his proximity to the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and minister of Defense, Najib Razak (he is also his security affairs adviser). Baginda paraded in the most exclusive circles of Kuala Lumpur, sometimes accompanied by his legitimate wife.
In March 2005, Altantuya and Baginda departed for Europe, touring France, Germany, Italy and Portugal in Baginda’s red Ferrari, staying in posh hotels and dining in the finest restaurants of the old Continent. This trip, however, was not only for tourism: the contract for the sale of the submarines had been signed in 2002, but important details had yet to be settled.
"We knew that Baginda was used by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak as an intermediary for weapons systems deals, especially the high level ones," says a regional security affairs expert.
At the end of March 2005 the couple was in Paris, where they met with Najib Razak. A picture shows the threesome in a Parisian private club. "Tuya showed me the pix. She said that one of the men was her boyfriend, Abdul Razak Baginda, and the other the "big boss", Najib Razak. I asked her if they were brothers because of the names, but she said no, and that Najib Razak was the ‘prime minister’", said Amy, Altantuya’s best friend (Najib Razak has sworn on the Koran that he has never met Altantuya).
The story became dramatic when, in October 2006, Altantuya was informed that the commission paid by the French-Spanish company Armaris had arrived on a Kuala Lumpur bank account. It had been paid to Perimekar, a company owned by Baginda. Altantuya rushed to Kuala Lumpur in order to claim her share of the commission from Baginda ; she said she was entitled to US$500,000. Baginda and Altantuya had broken up prior to this.
A jealous Rosmah Mansor, the feared businesswoman and wife of Najib Razak, objected to any payment to Altantuya. Altantuya arrived in Kuala Lumpur with two other Mongolian women, one of them was a shaman responsible for putting a spell on Baginda if he refused to pay. For several days, Altantuya harassed her ex-lover.
On the 18th of October, Baginda could no longer tolerate the daily scenes made by Altantuya in front of his house. He contacted the Director of the Special Branch, Musa Safrie, who happened to also be Najib Razak’s aide de camp. On October 19th, 2006, a little before 9 pm, two police officers of the Special Branch, Azilah Hadridan and Sirul Omar, were sent in front of Baginda’s house where Altantuya was gesticulating and shouting. They had the order of "neutralising the Chinese woman." They kidnapped her, and drove her 10 kilometers away and shot her several times. Then they destroyed her body with C4 explosives, a type which can only be obtained from within the Defense Ministry. Her entry into Malaysia was erased from the immigration records. It would appear that Altantuya had never come to Malaysia, because there is no trace left of her.
There is no perfect crime. The taxi driver hired by Altantuya for the day did not appreciate that his passenger was kidnapped under his eyes without payment for the fare. He took note of the registration plate of the kidnapper’s car and filed a complaint at the local police station. In a few days, the police identified the car and realized that it was a government vehicle.
Events unfolded that even the Deputy Prime minister Najib Razak could not impede. He tried to cover the case. A few hours before the arrest of Baginda, he sent him a SMS: "I will see the Inspector General of Police at 11 am today… The problem will be solved. Be cool". A few hours after, Baginda was arrested as well as the two police officers of the Special Branch, Azilah and Sirul.
After a trial considered dubious by many observers, Baginda was acquitted of the accusation of having ordered the murder and released in November 2008. Accused of having perpetrated the murder, Azilah and Sirul appeared in front of the Court last month. If convicted, their sentence is death. The verdict is scheduled for the 9th of April.
Thousands of miles from there, in the Mongolian capital city Ulaan Baataar, Shaariibuu Setev, Altantuya’s father, is trying to control his anger. To him and his family, the acquittal and release of Baginda is symbolic of the unfairness of the Malaysian judicial process: "The Malaysian government is not even answering to the letters from the Mongolian Foreign Affairs Ministry," he says.
When Shaariibuu came to the Malaysian Parliament to meet Najib Razak, the Deputy Prime minister had to escape through a back door in order to avoid an embarrassing encounter. The Altantuya case has become a key element of the Malaysian political game between Najib Razak (who is expected to become Prime Minister after the United Malay Nation Organisation (UMNO) Congress in March) and the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. So far, Najib Razak has navigated around the obstacles, but the murder of the young Mongolian remains a sword suspended over his head.
One of the most obscure aspects of the Altantuya case is the role of the Armaris company. In October 2007, the Malaysian Deputy Defense minister, Zainal Abdidin Zin, acknowledged in front of the Parliament that Armaris had effectively paid €114 million in commissions to Perimekar. He maintained that it was not a bribe, but a payment for "support and coordination services."
Was there corruption as in the case of the Taiwanese frigates in which the French DCNS was also implicated? DCNS, a private company with public financing, has declined our request for a meeting. "Nobody can comment on this case," was the sober reply of the DCNS Press relations officer in Paris.
A document, which could establish a link between Altantuya and the French company is the guarantee letter written by Abdul Razak Baginda so that his mistress could obtain a visa to enter the Schengen zone (of whom France is a member country). The French embassy could not refuse this service to a man decorated with the Legion d’Honneur.
But the role of Altantuya in the submarines negotiations is still not clear. Intelligence agencies find her background intriguing and the Russian FSB (ex-KGB) is following closely the case.
In Ulaan Baataar, Mungunshagai, the eldest son of Altantuya, who is 12 years old, is traumatised by the death of his mother. Altanshagai, the youngest, who is five years old and mentally handicapped, has not understood that he will never see again his mother. "He is asking for her all the time and is staying the whole day prostrated on his chair. Every evening, I bring him sweets and I tell him that his mother gave it to me for him", says Shaaribuu Setev, the grandfather of the two boys.
Anonymous Says:
ReplyDeleteNAJIS THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE WHOLE WORLD, THE PEEM IN WAITING FOR MALAYSIA, IMPLICATED WITH MURDER AND CORRUPTION HAS NO SHAME OR DIGNITY BUT TRY BULLYING HIS WAY UP THE PEEM POST, SUCH PERSON MUST BE SHUNNED AND BOYCOTTED BY ALL WORLD LEADERS AND BY ALL.
ROSMAH CRYING CROCODILE TEARS, AS FOR THE C4 AND THE POLICE BODY GUARDS THAT WERE USED TO ANNIHILATE THE NAJIS' MISTRESS ALTANTUYA BY BLOWING HER BODY UP INTO SMITHEREENS TO SATISFY THE GREAT JEALOUSY AND GREAT ANGER SHE HAD BEEN HARBOURING AND SEETHING FROM AND ALSO AT THE SAME TIME TO GET THEIR IMMIGRATION CONTACTS TO DELETE ATLANTUYA ENTRY RECORDS. BUT PI BALA GONE MISSING AFTER EATING FISHHEAD CURRY NEAR THE BRICKFIELDS POLICE STATION WHO RECANTED HIS FIRST SD WITH ANOTHER SD THE NEXT DAY UNDER DURESS FROM FISHHEAD CURRY TREATMENT FROM SOME POLICE C4 OR COULD HE HAD BEEN C4ED BY NOW AFTER DISAPPEARING FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND NOW LEFT 2 POLICE PERSONNEL IS LEFT TO BE THE SCAPEGOAT FOR THE MURDER WITHOUT A VALID MOTIVE?
KARPAL SINGH, GOBIND SINGH DEO, ALTANTUYA & ANY OR ALL OPPOSITIONS AGAINST NAJIS IS SQUASHED IN ORDER SO THAT THE SAID STIMULUS OF RM 60 BILLION FROM THE MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT COFFERS WHICH ARE NOW BEING DEPLETED BY NAJIS AND ONLY BENEFITING NAJIS’ CRONIES ARE THE ONLY ONES ESPECIALLY HIS SPECIAL PIMP/PARTNER RAZAK BAGINDA WHO ALREADY RECEIVED A SECRET COMMISSION OF 114 MILLION EUROS INTO HIS COMPANY AS INTERMEDIARY TO THE SUBMARINES, HELICOPTERS AND AIRCRAFTS PURCHASES FOR THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
WHERE ELSE CAN MALAYSIA GO AFTER 51 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE???
THE SEWERS OF COURSE WITH NAJIS AT THE HELM AS PEEM BECAUSE ALL EVIDENCES HAD SHOWN HIS GUILT LIKE THE SMSES HE SENT TO RAZAK BAGINDA’S LAWYER, HIS POLICE BODY GUARDS, WERE INDICTED AS WELL, BUT NOT SOMEONE’S ELSE???
If the PeeM in waiting can be implicated in Murder and Corruption then why the Police Murderers & Autopsy Pathologist & now the double faced snaky diplomat who want to keep his job cannot do the same with impunity, they are just following the footsteps of their revered leader Najis who had done very well in swearing to Allah on the Koran and every one of them can learn on how to swear their innocence despite all evidences have shown their Guilt, so only Allah can give them the real Judgement come Judgement Day as there is no escape from Allah’s real Justice for the deeds they have done.
Bandit Najis had been cheating and robbing the Nation’s Coffers for years with fictitious and non existent Defence Contracts, with either non supply necessary or supply with inferior quality products, by awarding these to his wife’s nominee Companies.
Loser, Loser & Loser Najis UMNO & BN therefore the biased EC must choose the same date so that they can try to cheat by using Phantom Voters if the Pakatan is not too careful on all three fronts.
History will repeat itself the most corrupted of all, implicated in Corruption & Murder, call Najis will helm UMNO to oblivion.
Beware of the Najis & UMNO underhand deceits, filthy lies and dirty tactics which must be exposed so that they will be shunned by all Rakyats in order to be thrown out in the next GE.
The Era of Anarchy has just begun in the coming Premiership of Najis, the most corrupted of all corrupters, all Malaysians beware that they, Najis & UMNO, will spend Government Money to buy Chaos in order to impose Dictatorial Government without election or after they have lost the Election in GE 13, we have all learnt from Perak Government’s takeover by deceit and by force of using the Police Force which could be bought and the Assemblymen who were bought either with money or in kind like no case in court for their corruptions’ cases pending trials if they defect from Pakatan and of course the sole DAP betrayer could be bought with a great sum of money as Najis knew and as well as the betrayer that she could never be elected ever again in Jelapang and of course the pension sum must be huge including allowance for her permanent retirement for making a betrayal to Pakatan for short term benefiting of Najis?
There must be a good reason for the Sultan well learned in law and also once holding the highest office in Supreme Court took a lowly decision in support of the most corrupted Politician call Najis, PeeM in awaiting. No offence intended to the Sultan who was highly regarded until just now only, it is either he has been threatened with some secret files on him held by Najis, or like all the other froggies that had been lured by huge sums of money offered by the most greedy of Corrupters called Najis who used the nation’s coffers as his own kitty bank. Knowing very well that Najis would not last the next GE, this is the best opportunity to make some good cash funds for keeps as the next Government under PKR will be clean and righteous for the God, King, People and Country.
Not realizing that Corruptions breed even more Corruptions and this is the vicious circle and the people of Perak are ones who would suffer in the long run and they will not forget what a Sultan they have had. If Najis and UMNO is in Power it is most likely that the nation’s coffers would be decimated and there will be nothing left for our Children’s Children, therefore make sure the UMNO along with all their goons are thrown out the next election.
May Allah bless you the people of Malaysia