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.”
The full SD;
http://rockybru.blogspot.com/2008/07/another-statutory-declaration.html
Check out point 52:
52. Shortly thereafter, at about 7.30 a.m., Abdul Razak Baginda received an SMS from Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and showed, this message to both myself and his lawyer. This message read as follows :- ” I am seeing IGP at 11.00 a.m. today …… matter will be solved … be cool”.
Who are the murderers then?
The SMS, if real, was sent after Altantuya was murdered and before Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested. If it was sent by Najib it shows that Najib was probably abusing his power, but it doesn’t make him a murderer yet.
Thing is, under normal circumstances, this SD is not enough to even bring in Najib for interrogations. Most of the points still lead back to one man… Abdul Razak Baginda. If ARB is determined not to reveal anything further, and if the police could not find other evidence to prove that he had conversation with Najib about this case… Najib is basically off the hook, guilty or not.
On side note, it’s quite amazing that ARB would trust a private investigator that he barely knew to share those secrecy… if you kill someone and need some VIP’s help to close the case, would you share the info with a person you know for just a month or two? I wonder…
I believe that Najib has to do some explanation. You cannot ignore the evidence. The bomb came from Ministry of Defence, the Baginda fella is his aide, and people have seen 3 of them in Spore and gay paree. The IGP of course is a rat and that goes for Patail. He is an embarassment to the legal fraternity. Malaysia is becoming Mugabe land. It is wild west he ha! Very soon it will be Mogadishu with technical vehicles. What is wrong with Badawi?? Is that why Najib has not challenged badawi for the top post because seems like Badawi has the IGP and Patail in his control and he would unleased those dogs to Najib if Najid dared to challenge?? I call on the real police to stand up and arrest najib. God bless Zimbabwe.
[...] private investigator P Balasubramaniam retracted his statutory declaration which he made less than 24 hours ago, stating that he was compelled to affirm the said statutory declaration under duress. [...]