By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR - A decade after Malaysia's criminal-justice system earned
condemnation for allegedly bending the rules to jail a prominent
politician
who had run afoul of the prime minister, now it is back in the dock and
under attack for allegedly stretching the rules in a sensational murder
case
involving top political figures.
Opposition lawmakers and independent observers are questioning the police
investigation into a high-profile murder, the integrity of the
prosecution,
and the independence of judges.
At issue is the gruesome murder of 28-year-old Mongolian beauty queen
Altantuya Shaariibuu, who was abducted from outside the home of the
accused
killer, Abdul Razak Baginda. one of the country's best-known political
scientists, Baginda is also a top political adviser to Najib Razak,
Malaysia's powerful deputy prime minister, and is viewed by many as a
potential prime minister.
Altantuya was abducted by two police officers of an elite unit last
October
18, according to public prosecutors' opening statements when the trial
began
last month. The next day, prosecutors said, Altantuya was killed and her
body blasted to pieces with C4 explosives in an apparent attempt to
eliminate all evidence of the crime.
According to witness testimony, all records of Altantuya's entry and
presence in Malaysia were erased from the computers of the Immigration
Department. Opposition lawmakers charged that such an erasure is
impossible
without top-level intervention and are pressing for more information on
what
they have referred to as "anomalies" in the official police investigation.
In earlier court affidavits, Baginda admitted he had an affair with
Altantuya, who was reportedly fluent in French, Russian and Chinese, and
was
variously referred to as a part-time model and translator. Baginda said he
ended the affair, but Altantuya harassed him for money and finally came to
Malaysia last October to blackmail him by threatening to inform his wife
and
teenage daughter of the affair. Witnesses said Altantuya asked for
US$500,000 to keep silent.
Baginda also has admitted contacting Najib's aide-de-camp and being
introduced to two police officers whom he apparently asked for help in
resolving his problem with his ex-mistress. "I never asked them to kill
her," Baginda said in the affidavit.
Baginda and two members of the elite Special Forces Command, which provide
security to government VIPs, including Najib, whose name has persistently
hovered over the crime, are on trial. The investigation has been in the
national headlines since November.
The proceedings are being sharply criticized by the political opposition,
who have made allegations of a high-level cover-up.
"The entire conduct of the prosecution [was] not meant to seek and find
the
truth, to catch the culprits who perpetrated the crime, but at all stages,
to protect powerful individuals from being implicated in any way," said
government critic and former premier Anwar Ibrahim.
"The many twists and turns in the case have raised doubts about the
integrity of the prosecution and independence of the judges," he said. "It
is sickening, it is pathetic, to say the least."
According to Anwar, those twists include the sudden removal of the
presiding
judge before the trial started without a plausible explanation to the
lawyers. The head of the prosecution team was also changed at the eleventh
hour and the reason given - the prosecution leader was seen playing
badminton with the judge - was rejected by prominent lawyers. Finally,
defense lawyers for the three accused keep changing, with one walking out
on
the first day of the trial because of unnamed "third parties" who he
alleged
were interfering in his work.
The last time the prosecution and judiciary were this openly criticized
was
in 1998, when Anwar was on trial for corruption and sexual misconduct
after
a falling-out with then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The Anwar trial,
which was widely condemned as a farce, including among international legal
experts, severely undermined the Mahathir administration - and it is
believed the current trial may have similar consequences for Prime
Minister
Abdullah Badawi.
Critics say the trial has already undermined public confidence in
Abdullah's
reformist credentials, crucially when general elections are scheduled to
be
held within the next 12 months.
Anwar and other opposition politicians allege that there are "credible
speculations" that the murder could be connected to internal government
rifts over a billion-dollar purchase of two Scorpene submarines from
France
in 2002. In his capacity as defense minister, Najib negotiated the
controversial deal, which opposition politicians, including Anwar, allege
was rife with irregularities.
"The government must carry out a complete review of the submarine purchase
and how politically connected individuals profited from it," said Lim Guan
Eng, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Action Party. "The
public is losing confidence."
Answering the various allegations, Najib's office issued a brief statement
denying any links between Najib and the murdered Altantuya. "I am innocent
... Allah is my witness," Najib said in the statement. Public doubts
intensified, however, after witness testimony last week alleging that the
victim had shown her a photograph of herself, Baginda, Najib and "others"
having lunch in a Paris restaurant.
Defense lawyers and prosecutors stopped the witness from testifying
further.
Nor did the court ask the witness, a cousin of the murdered woman, to
produce the photograph - a serious lapse in standard legal procedures,
according to a senior criminal lawyer following the case, who requested
anonymity.
"Public confidence is in tatters and only a complete and in-depth probe
into
all the circumstances in this murder will satisfy the public," said
prominent human-rights lawyer Sivarasah Rasiah. "The world too is
watching."
(Inter Press Service)
----------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail has been sent via JARING webmail at http://www.jaring.my
No comments:
Post a Comment