A NEW SUBMARINES LINK EMERGES: ESCORT COPS RENEW INTEREST IN ALTANTUYA KILLERS

The news that two police constables had each been jailed 2 years and fined RM10,000 for accepting a bribe of RM350 raised eyebrows, triggering comparison with two other cops - Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar, Prime Minister Najib Razak's former bodyguards on the death row - who are also seen as having been given the short end of the stick.

"These are obviously two lowly-paid policemen who succumbed to temptation. What they did was wrong but it is common knowledge that many scandals exist in this country without ever getting solved," PKR vice president N Surendran told Malaysia Chronicle.

"We know of ministers, deputy ministers who are never brought to court. The Umno-linked businessmen are involved in all sorts of dirty deals and no action is ever taken. There is also the submarines commission and the Altantuya murder that have never been properly explained."

The two constables punished by the Sessions Court on Friday were Mohd Ridzuan Zulkifli, 29, and Md Azale Md Yusof, 27, whom the judge said had failed to raise reasonable doubt against charges of having bribed an Indonesian man 4 years ago.

The duo are attached to the escort branch of the Kuala Lumpur police contingent headquarters. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission prosecuted on behalf of the government, calling 10 witnesses while both the accused had testified for the defence.

"As policemen, who are wearing the badge with the words Saya Anti Rasuah (I'm Against Bribes), you should think about your parents and families before getting involve in bribery," the judge had told the court.

Pawns

Given that the crime occured 4 years ago, the bribery case seems to have dragged on longer than usual. It is not impossible that the constables may have been pawns in the government's game of hypocrisy, where small fish are often punished and the sharks thrown back into the ocean.

In the case of Azilah and Sirul, who were well-paid members of an elite squad detailed to protect the country's top leaders, they were sentenced to hang for killing a 28-year old Mongolian translator with sexual links to Najib.

Even so, the court had refused to allow mitigation based on the premise that the duo had been paid to kill her, or to allow any questions to be asked as to who had ordered them to effect the murder. Both men had just met her and did not have any motive of their own to do so.

Sirul had even claimed he was paid RM100,000 to kill Altantuya but the court denied his counsel the chance to pursue this thread further. The Malaysian newspapers, which are controlled by the government, helped to suppress the information. However, recent US cables published by WikiLeaks showed that the US embassy here was concerned about the quality of trial the two accused were receiving.

It has been two years now since Azilah and Sirul were sentenced to hang and both men are still sitting on death row. Many believe that some sort of deal has been arranged whereby they will be allowed to live. Without this promise, the pair is likely to have made greater attempts to expose their puppet-master.

Both men had been hired by Razak Baginda to stop Altantuya Shaariibuu from harrassing him and his family. Baginda is a close friend of Najib's and a firm connected to him was awarded a RM500 million side-deal in Malaysia's purchase of 3 submarines worth RM6.7 billion from French arms-maker DCNS.

Given the perception that the full truth has not been revealed, public curiosity over the Altantuya murder remains high and many hope that Azilah and Sirul will escape execution so that the complex jigsaw puzzle can finally be pieced together.

Another link to Najib?

Many rights groups had then protested the 2002 submarines purchase which they claim was unsuitable and overly expensive. They believe the deal awarded to Baginda was a kickback to Najib.

Both the PM and Baginda are also believed to have had an affair with the beautiful Mongolian, who could speak 4 languages including Russian. She is believed to have helped Baginda with translations during negotiations with DCNS. Najib, who was then the Defense Minister, had approved the submarines purchase.

Despite the numerous and inexplicable threads that lead back to the top man in the country, no probe was ever instituted against Najib. His two former bodyguards were senteneced to death, while Baginda was aquitted and immediately left for UK to further his studies.

His administration's refusal to reveal full details of the deal, despite public grousing, had forced Malaysia's largest NGO, SUARAM, to file a complaint in Paris against DCNS. SUARAM wants to recover any bribes DCNS may have paid to secure the acquistion, the full cost of which is ultimately borne by Malaysian taxpayers.

Meanwhile, new information has emerged that a third person had travelled with Altantuya and Baginda during their trips to Europe to discuss the submarines deals. This information may provide another link to Najib.

"Our lawyers have informed us that a third person's name came up during the investigations," Cynthia Gabriel, director of SUARAM told Malaysia Chronicle, declining to give details.

In a telling reflection on the Malaysian system, the French authorities have agreed to hear the complaint against DCNS within the next month or two. SUARAM's lawyers are due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur to brief their client and other citizens' groups ahead of the hearing in Paris.

"This all points to a serious imbalance in our criminal justice system and this injustice is caused by the higher echelon in the government because they dance to the tune of the political masters," said Surendran.

Source : Malaysia Chronicle.