Razak Baginda’s former private investigator, P Balasubramaniam, has made a statutory declaration on July 1 regarding Altantuya’s murder case.
The details of the SD is available on Nat’s blog. To cut it short…
a. Balasubramaniam was hired by Abdul Razak Baginda (ARB) in October 2006 to deal with a threat calling him to pay his debts. He later identified that person as Ang (or ASP Tan), a private investigator employed by Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaaribuu.
b. Altantuya, identified herself as Aminah, claimed that she was there to see her boyfriend Abdul Razak Baginda. She (or Mr Ang) was demanding USD$500,000 commission owed to Aminah from a (submarine) deal in Paris.
c. ARB told Balasubramaniam that he had been introduced to Aminah by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at a diamond exhibition in Singapore. Najib said that he had a sexual relationship with Aminah.
Najib wanted ARB to look after Aminah as he did not want her to harass him since he was now the Deputy Prime Minister. The trio had all been together at a dinner in Paris.
d. Aminah told Balasubramaniam on Oct 19, 2006, that… (1) she met ARB with Najib in Singapore; (2) they had dinner in Paris; (3) she was promised a sum of USD$500,000 as commission for assisting in a Submarine deal in Paris; (4) ARB married her in Korea.
e. Three police officers, which is now identified as Lance Corporal Rohaniza, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azahar, took Aminah away shortly after their conversation (above). That was the last time Balasubramaniam saw Aminah.
f. Balasubramaniam have told everything to the police during his interrogation, but the details were left out from the official statement.
These stories are not new; Raja Petra (Malaysia-Today) and some bloggers have been saying these at a number of ocassions, but it’s the first time that a person (claimed to be) involved in the situation has came out with the details.
The major point of the SD is that Najib might know Altantuya from the beginning and has been lying all this while; the rest of the SD isn’t going to help much for the investigation… some of those are known facts, while some are just irrelevant for the case.
Besides, lots of the info was ‘told’ to Balasubramaniam and not something he saw or witnessed. Unless some (or at least one) of the accused are coming out with new revelations… the case will be closed with lots of mysteries and questions.
Update: Balasubramaniam retracts his SD just 24 hours later, saying that he was “compelled to affirm the statutory declaration under duress.”