Ariff advises Pak Lah to stay out of Altantuya case
Raub MP tells why Umno fearful of losing power: Pakatan will expose secrets.
KUALA LUMPUR: Raub MP Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz has made a broad threat
about exposing the secrets behind the controversial purchase of two
French-built submarines, which has been linked to the murder of
Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu eight years ago.
“We will dig out the story when we come to power,” said Ariff, a
former Umno member and one-time Najib Razak aide who joined the DAP in
2012. “Now you know why Umno is fearful of losing power.”
He said a new Pakatan Rakyat-led federal government could also reopen
the Altantuya case and order a fresh trial to settle outstanding
issues.
In a blog article on Friday, Ariff related political gossip that even
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was a “beneficiary of the spoils” of the
submarine purchase, but made clear he was only recounting hearsay. “I
don’t know about this – people tell me this,” he said.
He warned Abdullah against joining the fight to reopen the Altantuya
murder case. Abdullah had said earlier that Najib did not know
Altantuya. “People can be rude by asking, what does Pak Lah know?” Ariff
said, before advising Abdullah not to get involved.
“Pak Lah is better off staying out of this fight, lest people start
digging what he got when Najib took over as PM,” he said. Najib
succeeded Abdullah as prime minister in 2009, a year after Barisan
Nasional suffered humiliating losses to Pakatan Rakyat in the general
election the previous year.
Ariff joined the chorus of opposition cries for a new trial into the
Altantuya case, in which Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor, and a Najib
associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, have been implicated.
He dismissed Najib’s lack of a clear answer when asked in a
television interview on Thursday about his connection to Altantuya, in
the face of widespread political gossip that he had had a relationship
with the victim through Razak.
Ariff said Najib had not answered the question. He merely responded
by telling the interviewer that he had taken an Islamic oath in a mosque
that he did not know Altantuya.
“I think the answer was meant more for the folks in the villages and
in the Malay heartland,” said Ariff and ridiculed the prime minister.
“If Najib can prove his innocence by way of making the solemn oath, then
anyone accused of any crime can avoid going before the civil courts by
doing the same. Many wrongdoers will get away easily.”
The best way to solve the issue once and for all was a retrial, he
said. “Bring in Musa Safri (a former aide to Najib at the time of the
murder and who was implicated but never called to testify), Razak
Baginda and others, investigation officers and everyone connected to the
brutal slaying.” He said some evidence could be introduced, as well as
people never called to testify, and the two policemen eventually
convicted and sentenced to death for killing Altantuya.
“The retrial can be done – if we have a new government, a properly constituted court,” he said.
One of the two convicted killers, Sirul Azhar Umar, has said that he
and co-accused Azilah Hadri were only carrying out orders and had been
made the scapegoats while the people responsible got away. Sirul is now
being held in an Australian immigration detention centre after he fled
there while awaiting a court decision.
His pleas have been taken up by former prime minister Mahathir
Mohamad who has called for the case to be reopened and for Najib to
answer whether he knew Altantuya.
