Police will not re-open investigations into the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.Sometimes, the formidable morphs into the pathetic. For a long time, ,probe in Altantuya murder,be above any challenge, criticism or scandal..with its potent combination of powerful interests seemed to carry such sweeping and overwhelming force that it looked to be above any challenge, criticism or scandal. The players, administrators, sponsors, franchisees, the television broadcaster, commentators and the mainstream media at large all appeared to be part of a monolithic structure that acted in unison and found a way of deflecting all criticism.Distressingly, this is being enabled by media that promotes the very people who are architects of this mess simply because at this point in time, what they have to say is useful in attacking the current dispensation at the BCCI. This selective use of critics studiously ignores the larger context; the absurdity ofInspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said it was not necessary to do so and even questioned the reason for fresh investigations.The problem of course is that protection and punishment, accompanied by anger and recrimination directed at the police and the politicians, seems at least somewhat tangible. Talking about societal change and the shaping of new mindsets seems to be a project in wishy-washy wishful thinking. When change is distributed so thinly over so many people, it looks impossible. It is much easier to believe that the police force and a limited number of people in power can be made to change and give us solutions.
Protection and punishment. The two standard responses to tragedies like in Altantuya murder,
Sometimes, the formidable morphs into the pathetic. For a long time, the juggernaut Submarine Furor Returns to Malaysia, with its potent combination of powerful interests seemed to carry such sweeping and overwhelming force that it looked to be above any challenge, criticism or scandal. The players, administrators, sponsors, franchisees, the television broadcaster, commentators and the mainstream media at large all appeared to be part of a monolithic structure that acted in unison and found a way of deflecting all criticism. There middleman, for his controversy it created, seemed to enjoy immunity from any consequences, as one excess piled on top of another and dodginess, financial and otherwise, looked like it was part of the script.
Shafee Abdullah: sodomologist extraordinaireâ.Razak Baginda saved by his affidavit drafted by Lingamgate linked Shafee Abdullah he is the one who received the sms from Najib When comes to Anwar everything that government does is wrong, fabricated, false accusation, MUHAMMAD SHAFEE ABDULLAH: When the trial first started, I think at least for the first two months or … Read more
key figure says he helped PM’s wife get a witness out of town
A key figure involved in the cover-up of the spectacular 2006 murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu appears to have gone off the reservation, giving interviews to opposition media hinting at the involvement of Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, in the conspiracy.
Deepak Jaikishan (left), a Kuala Lumpur-based carpet dealer who reportedly was Mansor’s business partner in the past, allegedly promised RM5 million to get out of the country to a private detective who charged that Najib had been Altantuya’s former lover, after the detective filed a sworn declaration describing his knowledge of the affair between the two and giving excruciating details of sexual practices, among other specifics.
The detective, Perumal Balasubramaniam, was terrorized after being dragooned into a Kuala Lumpur police station and told his family was in danger. He immediately decamped for Chennai, India after being promised the money to recant his declaration. He has remained outside of Malaysia, issuing periodic statements giving additional details of the affairs as well as alleged attempts by Najib’s forces to cajole him into coming back and blame Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for the whole thing.
Altantuya, named in French Police documents as a translator, was murdered in October 2006 by two members of an elite police unit operating under Najib’s jurisdiction. The two were later convicted and sentenced to death for the crime. Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib’s closest associates and according to French prosecuting magistrates’ documents the alleged conduit for a €114 million bribe to the United Malays National Organization for the purchase of submarines from the French defense contractor DCN and its subsidiaries, was acquitted of the crime.
A central figure in the massive bribery case of Malaysian officials for the purchase of submarines from a subsidiary of the French defense contractor DCN has caused a furor in Malaysia with an exclusive interview with the Kuala Lumpur-based political party broadsheet New Straits Times.
In the interview, Jasbir Singh Chahl told the newspaper, which is owned by the United Malays National Organization, the country’s biggest political party, that the murdered Mongolian party girl and translator Altantuya Shaariibuu had never acted as a translator in the affair. He also said Perimekar Sdn Bhd., then a wholly owned subsidiary of a company owned by one of then-Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak’s best friends, actually had done legitimate work to earn a €114.96 “commission” that has been characterized as a bribe by French officials.
In the wake of Chahl’s remarks, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi has threatened the leaders of Suaram, the human rights NGO that took allegations of the affair to French authorities, with sedition. The Registrar of Societies has also threatened to take away Suaram’s certification as an NGO.
No one outside of the New Straits Times, the UMNO mouthpiece, has been allowed to interview Jasbir Singh Chahl. If neutral journalists had been allowed, they could have brought up the 135 French documents that question Perimekar’s role in the purchase, and prove that Altantuya had visited Paris in the company of Perimekar’s boss, Abdul Razak Baginda. They could also have brought up a mysterious payment of €36 million from a DCN offshoot to Terasasi (Hong Kong) Ltd, a mysterious company whose only directors are Razak Baginda and his father.
Najib, Malaysia’s Prime Minister since 2009, has just come through a bruising political campaign in which corruption allegations, including those surrounding the submarine purchase, played a major role. For the first time since Malaysia became a nation, the Barisan Nasional, the ruling national coalition, came out on the short end of the popular vote, winning 47.38 percent of the popular vote against 50.87 percent for the opposition headed by Anwar Ibrahim. The Barisan, however, managed to win 140 of the 222 seats in parliament through gerrymandering.
The documents made available to Asia Sentinel from the French prosecutor’s office in Paris, make it clear both that DCN officials characterized Perimekar as “nothing more than a travel agency” allegedly designed to enrich UMNO officials, and also make it clear that Altantuya had accompanied Abdul Razak Baginda, the beneficial owner at that point of Perimekar, on a visit to DCN offices in 2005, before she was murdered by two of Najib’s bodyguards.
The documents, published in French, remain uploaded on the Asia Sentinel website and can be viewed here (French Prosecutor’s documents).
It has thus long been clear that Chahl is dissembling on both counts. Chahl’s credibility has been damaged further by the fact that he was ousted from Perimekar early on in the negotiations himself. In several memos found during the DCN investigation, Chahl demanded a full fourth of Perimekar’s total €114.96 million as a finder’s fee. He was subpoenaed as a witness in the case, but after first indicating to French lawyers that he would cooperate, he stopped talking. The case with Razak Baginda has been settled out of court, according to Cynthia Gabriel of Suaram.
According to the French prosecutor’s documents, Perimekar was described as “never more than a travel agency…The price is inflated and their support function is very vague…Yes, that company created unfounded wealth for its shareholders,” according to one of the documents. In another, the DCN officials said that “In Malaysia, other than individuals, the ruling party [UMNO] is the largest beneficiary [rather than Perimekar, the company to which the commission was directed]. Consultants [agents or companies] are often used as a political network to facilitate such transfers and receive commissions for their principals.”
The payment appears to have been in violation of the OECD Convention on Bribery, which France ratified on June 30, 2000. On Sep. 29, 2000, according to document D00015, DCNI, a DCN subsidiary, “took corrective actions” after France joined the bribery convention.
Contracts concluded after that date were to be routed to Eurolux and Gifen, companies held by Jean-Marie Boivin, DCN’s former finance chief, and headquartered in Luxembourg and Malta respectively. Boivin is being investigated for having played a central role in the “corrective actions,” with what were described as “outlandish commissions” traveling through the welter of companies that he established in tax havens around the world.
“A separate agreement sets other compensation consisting of a fixed amount independent of the actual price of the main contract,” one document reads in reference to the payment to Perimekar. “This has been made to be consistent with [DCN's] internal rules and [its subsidiary] Thales and those of the OECD. The beneficiaries of these funds are not difficult to imagine: the clan and family relations of Mr. Razak Baginda. In addition, these funds will find their way to the dominant political party.” Malaysia’s dominant political party was and is UMNO.
As to Chahl’s assertion that Altantuya had never been a part of the Scorpene equation, it is true that she was not part of the negotiations before Chahl himself was said to have left Perimekar over his demands. But later, when Razak Baginda and Najib visited DCN in 2005, records show she accompanied the Perimekar boss when he and Najib were dealing with matters pertaining to training the Royal Malaysian Navy personnel to operate the submarines.
Despite voluminous attempts by both the pro-government newspapers and pro-government bloggers to assert that Altantuya had never visited Paris or had anything to do with the matter, Razak Baginda himself, when he was under investigation on charges of ordering the two bodyguards to kill the 28-year-old pregnant woman, told investigators he had traveled with her to France in 2005.
Records seized by French investigators from DCN bear that out. According to the records, Abdul Razak Baginda and Altantuya met with Jean Marie Boivin, the alleged French fixer who helped to organize “commissions” for friends in high places to pick DCN’s submarines on that same trip. Boivin arranged to pay for a jaunt by Altantuya and Abdul Razak to Macau. In those documents, Altantuya is described as Razak Baginda’s translator.
Najib has sworn on the Quran that he never met Altantuya, although she was in France at the same time as he was, accompanying Abdul Razak Baginda.
Razak Baginda had been Altantuya’s lover, supposedly after Najib had given her up, according to Balasubramaniam’s sworn declaration. Immediately on being cleared without having to put on a defense, Razak Baginda fled to the UK with his wife, where he has remained ever since.
Attempts to reach Jaikishan by Asia Sentinel have been unsuccessful. He first contacted Harakan Daily, the Malay-language newspaper operated by Parti Islam se-Malaysia, the Islamic opposition leg of the three-party Pakatan Rakyat headed by Anwar, and later gave an interview to Malaysiakini, the Kuala Lumpur-based independent online news website, describing additional details. Additional interviews have also been carried by the Malaysia Chronicle, another opposition website.
In the interviews, Jaikishan acknowledged that Najib and Rosmah had asked for his help in dealing with Balasubramaniam. In a translated interview, he told Harakan Daily that “Maybe my mistake was helping in the case of Bala, getting involved in Bala’s case to help the family of the Prime Minister. That was when I became famous. I don’t like it. I’d like to be low profile.”
In the Harakan interview, Jaikishan compared his involvement in Balasubramaniam’s case to rescuing a drowning friend. “So I jumped into the pool to help a friend,” he said. I felt at that time, I was the only one (they) sought for help.” He quickly responded: “Najib’s family” when asked whom he meant by ‘theirs.’
Jaikisan’s motives are unclear, sources in Kuala Lumpur told Asia Sentinel. One of the articles made a veiled reference to a belief that he hadn’t been given proper thanks for his efforts. One well-wired businessman in Kuala Lumpur said Jaikishan was known to have become close to Muhyiddin Yassin, the Deputy Prime Minister and a putative rival for the premiership should Najib stumble.
“It’s an UMNO play”, the source said. “Deepak claims he is now very close to Muhyiddin. The timing of his solicited interviews – he called the news portals and offered himself – on the eve of the UMNO assembly suggests he wanted to embarrass Najib and Rosmah.”
