PETALING JAYA: The intensifying chatter of an alleged conspiracy in the 2006 murder of Altantuya Shaarribuu has put a SMS purportedly sent by Najib Tun Razak to his close friend Abdul Razak Baginda back in the spotlight.
The SMS was first mentioned in P Balasubramaniam’s first statutory declaration [SD], where the private investigator claimed that Razak Baginda showed him the text message from the then deputy prime minister the morning before he was arrested.
“On the day Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested, I was with him at his lawyers office at 6.30 am Abdul Razak Baginda informed us that he had sent Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak an SMS the evening before as he refused to believe he was to be arrested, but had not received a response.”
“Shortly thereafter, at about 7.30 am, 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’,” according to the SD.
However, any instances of impropriety was dismissed by former Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan today, who said that he did meet Najib at the time but the latter did not attempt to interfere into the case in any way.
Speaking to FMT, Musa recounted that he had briefed the then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi about the case. Musa had previously told online news portal Malaysiakini.com that top cops were summoned in 2007 by Badawi about the case.
“The Prime Minister Badawi asked me whether Najib was involved or not. I said no. Our investigations showed he was not. I told him my men will be arresting Razak Baginda because of his involvement, ” he said, adding that the former premier then directed that he inform Najib of this.
“I met Najib telling him that I was going to arrest Razak Baginda. He replied ‘carry on’. That’s all. He did not try to interfere with what the police was going to do.”
Asked about the alleged SMS message, Musa said he was not privy to that as Najib did not show him anything of the kind.
He also explained that police investigations were focused on the murder and the issue with the SD was being handled by another enforcement agency.
“I don’t know about the SD. The SD was actually investigated by somebody else. I only monitored the murder case.”
On whether further investigations should be done on the SD matter, Musa replied: “I think if they want to find the truth it should be investigated.”
In the interview with Malaysiakini, Musa had said that it was untrue that Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor was at the scene of the crime.
He said investigations also showed military was not involved.
Murky saga
In Oct 21, Musa had denied that he was to hold a press conference in Bangkok the next day.
This was information posted on the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) website, where it was written that the press conference was supposed to reveal new details about the Altantuya murder.
On several occasions, Musa’s name would be dragged into the dramatic but murky saga.
Aside from being identified in the first SD, Musa’s name was mentioned during an alleged exchange of text messages between Najib and an Umno-linked lawyer.
This transcript, which was published in the Malaysia Today blog, had suggested that Musa had met Najib over the murder. Najib had reportedly said that there was no abuse of power over the case.
Altantuya, a Mongolian national, was slain on Oct 2006. She was shot and her remains destroyed by C-4 explosives in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam.
Two police personnel – part of then deputy prime minister Najib’s security detail – were found guilty of murdering Altantuya.
Defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who admitted to the court that Altantuya was his lover, was acquitted on a charge of abetting the two police personnel in the murder, without his defence being called.
The court has never established a motive for the murder.
Balasubramaniam’s first SD linked Najib to the murder when he revealed it in 2008 at a press conference together with Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
However, the private investigator reversed the first SD via a second SD the next day. He then disappeared.
On Oct 27, 2009, Balasubramaniam came out of hiding and reaffirmed that his first statutory declaration was true. He claimed he was offered RM5 million to retract it by carpet trader Deepak Jaikishan together with Najib’s brother Nazim.
In the past few weeks, Deepak has emerged to claim, among other things, that Najib and Rosmah were the people who instructed him to seek out Balasubramaniam to change his first SD.
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