4
news without borders
Officer told me to
Azilah and
Sirul arrive
at the
Shah Alam
High Court
help Razak: Azilah
yesterday. by Maria J. Dass
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: The Altantunya
Shaariibuu murder trial resumed
yesterday after a break of nearly
two months with the first ac-
cused, Chief Insp Azilah Hadri,
telling the High Court that senior
SHARIL AMIN/SUNPIX
police officer DSP Musa Safri
had asked him to help political
analyst Abdul Razak Abdullah
Baginda.
Azilah also told the court he
was asked by Abdul Razak to
send Altantuya back to her hotel
on the night of Oct 19, 2006, and
to advise her to stop threatening
and harassing him.
Azilah, a police Special Action
Unit (UTK) officer, and his col-
league Cpl Sirul Azhar Umar are
accused of murdering Altantuya,
a Mongolian, in Mukim Bukit
Raja between 10pm on Oct 19,
2006 and 1am the next day.
On Oct 31 last year, the court
acquitted and discharged Abdul
Razak, 48, of abetting them in
Kuala Lumpur between 9.54am
on Oct 18, 2006 and 9.45pm the
following day, without calling
him to enter defence.
Azilah said Musa met him in
Pekan, Pahang, when he was on
an escort assignment on Oct 17,
2006, and asked him if he knew
anyone at the Brickfields district
police headquarters.
“I said I knew DSP Idris Abd
Karim. He told me to meet Abdul
Razak, who was facing some
problems, to get more information
as he did not know what Abdul
Razak’s predicament was.”
Azilah said he returned from
Pekan that night and met Abdul
Razak in the latter’s office the
next day.
“He (Abdul Razak) told me
he was being threatened by a
Chinese man and a woman for
an undisclosed sum of money
but did not state the reasons for
this,” Azilah said.
Abdul Razak let him listen to
a voice mail on his handphone,
where a man said in a Chinese
accent: “Saya kasi pecah you
punya muka.” [I will break your
face (a term used by the Chinese
to say ‘I will bring you shame’.)]
“I advised him to lodge a
police report but he refused and
asked me to help him stop the
man and woman from turning
up and creating a scene outside
his house and to arrange for
mobile police vehicles (MPV) to
patrol the vicinity,” Azilah said.
“He also asked me to meet the
‘Chinese woman’ and advise her
to stop threatening and harassing
him outside his house.”
Abdul Razak gave him his
address in Bukit Damansara and
the number of the room at Hotel
Malaya where the “Chinese
woman” was staying.
Azilah said he asked Sirul
Azhar for help and they went to
the hotel to meet and advise the
woman but could not do so as
there was some confusion over
the room number given by Abdul
Razak.
On the night of Oct 19, Azilah
said, he agreed to replace a col-
league, ASP Azhari, on “deputy
prime minister escort assign-
ment” in Putrajaya after his
theSun | FRIDAY JANUARY 16 2009
Altantuya
ACCUSED
Victim
Altantuya
Shaariibuu, 28
• Chief Insp Azilah • Cpl Sirul Azhar
Hadri, 32 Umar, 37
Judge • Kamarul Hisham
• Justice Datuk Mohd Zaki Kamaruddin, Hasnal Rezua
Md Yasin Merican and Ahmad Zaidi
Zainal for Sirul Azhar
Prosecution
• Tun Abdul Majid Tun Watching brief for Abdul
Hamzah • Manoj Kurup
• Wong Chiang Kiat •
Razak Baginda: Wong Kian
Kheong.
Noorin Badaruddin Watching brief for
• Hanim Rashid Altantuya’s family and
Mongolian government:
Defence Karpal Singh, Ram Karpal
• Hazman Ahmad and J. Singh and Sangeet Kaur
Kuldeep Kumar for Azilah Deo
Charge
• Azilah and Sirul Azhar murdered Mongolian
Altantuya at Bukit Raja, Selangor, between 10pm,
Oct 19 and 1am, Oct 20, 2006.
Penalty: Death if convicted.
assignment to Hongkong was
cancelled.
He broke fast with L/Cpl
Rohaniza Roslan and asked her
to accompany him to the UTK
office to pack his things and to
send him to Putrajaya, where he
would be based.
While he was packing, Abdul
Razak called to say the “Chinese
woman” was outside his house
with a man named Bala. He and
Rohaniza then went to the house,
where they met Sirul Azhar.
Azilah said he approached the
woman and she walked towards
him and got into his car without
anyone telling her to do so.
He drove off with the woman,
Rohaniza and Sirul Azhar be-
cause his task, as requested by
Abdul Razak, was to advise the
woman and send her back to her
hotel.
Azilah said they stopped half-
way to drop Sirul Azhar off where
his four-wheel drive vehicle was
parked and he tailed Sirul Azhar
to Bukit Aman.
“During the journey, I spoke
to the ‘Chinese woman’ and told
her to meet Abdul Razak in his
office to sort out her problems
with him and not at his house as
he had a family,” he said.
He said Rohaniza then told
him she had to meet friends in
Petaling Jaya and did not have
time to accompany the “Chinese
woman” to the hotel.
“I asked Sirul to send her (the
woman) back and we drove to
Bukit Aman, where she got off
our vehicle and got into Sirul’s
four-wheel drive,” Azilah said.
He said it was the last time he
saw the woman.
Azilah said he then went to
the UTK office, where he made
several calls and carried out an
“array of tasks”, including mak-
ing arrangements and checking
on the VIP’s time-table for his
Putrajaya assignment.
He said his fiancée, Norazila
Baharuddin, picked him up at
about 10.30pm and they went
to a stall in Wangsa Maju for a
meal.
She sent him back to Bukit
Aman at 12.20am and later,
Rohaniza sent him to Putrajaya,
as arranged.
The hearing continues.