Death Sentence

Here's another great blog entry reproduced with permission from elsewhere on Multiply.

The author wishes to remain anonymous.


Death Sentence

April 12th 2009

Two Malaysian policeman were sentenced to death Thursday for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, in a case that has had tongues wagging from Kuala Lumpur to Penang and everywhere in between. Remains of Altantuya's body were found in a jungle clearing in 2006, after the Mongolian had been blown up by military grade expolsives. The reason people are talking has to do with the fact that both policemen are members of an elite unit that guards the Malaysian prime minister and deputy prime minister, neither had a motive to kill the 28 year old model and it's known that an order to "erase" the model was made after she began to harass a high level person for money after an affair. Malaysia's top blogger Raja Petra has suggested that the newly signed up PM Najib is linked to the murder, and for his troubles Petra was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), an opinion shared by opposition members in parliament who say questions have not been answered during the trial and that just as many "answers" need to be questioned. PM Najib has strongly denied any involvement in the murder, saying that he had never met the model, yet the allegations persist and the opposition has called for an independent and transparent inquiry, a request that has been denied.

 

Karpal Singh, an opposition politician and leading lawyer who is representing Altantuya's family, has said there are too many holes in the verdict, there is no motive and the murder chain goes beyond the two who have been charged. To make things more interesting, the French Liberation newspaper has suggested that Altantuya may have been pregnant when she was killed, that Altantuya was involved as a translator (the model grew up in Saint Petersburg and was fluent in Russian, Chinese and Korean) on a trip to Europe in 2005 that involved sealing submarine purchase deals with military contractor Armaris and that the car in which she had been taken away, when she was kidnapped, was a government registered vehicle. During this time Najib was Malaysia's Defence Minister. During this time his close associate Razak Baginda, later arrested for his involvement in the murder (Baginda was eventually acquitted), received a very fat payment to his bank account from Armaris. During this time Altantuya's entry into Malaysia had been erased from Malaysian Immigration records. And when Baginda was arrested he received a text message from Najib promising him that he would talk to the Inspector General of Police and that everything would be "cool".

 The French paper also alleges that Altantuya was "shared" between Najib and Baginda. But it suggests that the murder had more to do with Altantuya becoming difficult after not getting her "tip" for her services on the submarine deal rather than the murder having anything to do with a lover's "tiff" gone wrong. It's also suggested that the Russian FSB (ex KGB) has taken a keen interest in the trial (and has people in Kuala Lumpur who aren't here to visit the Butterfly Gardens). The Malaysian media, of course, has asked many pertinent questions, has looked under every stone and has largely kept the matter on the front pages, keeping it's spotlight off such unimportant issues like "spirits served at the elite Royal Selangor Club were not the Genuine Article". Shocking stuff. Tainted whiskey!    

          The whole affair has all the ingredients for a movie, the story of Altantuya reminiscent of the tragic Mata Hari figure. With the ghosts of disappearing witnesses, the heady mix of sex and politics, the duplicity of the protagonists and the amount of greasy money that passed between sweaty hands it makes for a saga that won't vanish into the background with the broken-necked charged. This will grow into a bigger creature, the kind that gobbles up political careers, causes suicides, leads to cracked marriages (though the marriages involved have been cracked a long time, by all accounts) and will never be buried. No matter how often some swear on the Koran. No matter how much some try to shoot bullets through it's skin. This will not leave. It will stay around until there's some justice hopefully.

The story of Altantuya will not be sucked into the darkness. And the more the government and the media try to avoid it the more the whispers will build into a wave that could wash away more than a few submarines. When the two policemen hang there will be more than just their families looking for heads to roll. Mongolia is watching. Malaysia is watching. There is no such thing as a perfect murder. But there is such a thing as a perfect storm. It seems like it may be making it's way here.