PETALING JAYA: A chief investigator repeatedly denied that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was involved in the killing of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu when the counsel for Malaysia Today Raja Petra Raja Kamarudin tried to link the Deputy Prime Minister to the murder.
The former ISA detainee attempted this at his sedition trial Tuesday through his counsel Gobind Singh Deo during the cross-examination of the chief investigator, Supt Gan Tack Guan.
Supt Gan, 50, who is Interpol’s National Centre Bureau assistant director based at Bukit Aman, said a statement was not taken from Najib as he was not involved in Altantuya’s murder.
When pressed further, he said Najib was an important witness.
“It is my opinion that every witness is important. We have seen his connections. Najib is not involved in this case,” said Supt Gan, who is also a complainant in the sedition trial.
When asked if it was not important to record a statement from Najib when he was considered an important witness, Supt Gan claimed Najib had been slandered.
When asked how he knew Najib was not involved in the murder although the Deputy Prime Minister was among four people implicated in Altantuya’s murder, Supt Gan said he had the chance to study the investigation papers.
“I am the supervisor for the investigations of the Altantuya case. I had a team of investigators to assist (investigating officer) Asst Supt Tonny Lunggan for the case. Investigations revealed that Najib is not involved,” he testified at a Sessions Court here.
Raja Petra had on May 6 last year claimed trial to publishing a seditious article on the news portal on April 25.
The 59-year-old is accused of publishing the article Let’s send the Altantuya murderers to hell on the website www.malaysia-today.net. The article is alleged to have contained nine paragraphs of seditious words.
The blogger is said to have committed the offence at his house on Jalan BRP 5/5 in Bukit Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh, that day.
When Gobind Singh suggested that there was a reason for Gan not to question Najib as the police knew that Najib was involved in Altantuya’s murder and the police had no guts to reveal this in their investigations, Gan disagreed.
He denied that he was not in the position to substantiate his police report against Raja Petra.
“Actually I lodged a police report (against Raja Petra) as certain contents of the article were simply fabricated,” he said.
To a question, he said he did not underline the paragraphs of the alleged seditious article.
He disagreed to a suggestion that it was not his decision to lodge a police report against Raja Petra and that it was a politically motivated decision to do so.
Supt Gan also admitted that three accused persons in the Altantuya murder trial had denied killing her.
He agreed that police investigations had revealed that two policemen implicated in her murder trial at Shah Alam High Court had murdered Altantuya.
He agreed that one area of police investigations was that the two policemen had been paid to murder her.
He disagreed that there were several paragraphs in the seditious article which were fair comment and factual.
When asked that Altantuya could be the seventh victim in light of Razak’s affidavit which was affirmed on Jan 4, 2007, he agreed.
He said he had read Razak’s affidavit but did not investigate its contents.
The hearing before Sessions Court judge Rozina Ayob will continue on Thursday.
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