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©The Sun (Used by permission)
by Tim Leonard

PETALING JAYA: A private investigator hired by Abdul Razak Baginda today made shocking allegations involving Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak which he claimed were omitted from his police statement and never brought up in the trial of murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

In a statutory declaration (SD) made on July 1, P. Balasubramaniam, 48, a former lance corporal with the police special branch, said Abdul Razak told him that he (Razak) was introduced to Altantuya at a diamond exhibition in Singapore by Najib who had confided in him that he (Najib) had sexual relations with her.

"Najib wanted Razak to look after Aminah (the name Altantuya was known by) as he did not want her to harass him since he was now the deputy prime minister," said Balasubramaniam in his declaration, distributed to the press at Parti Keadilan Rakyat headquarters in Tropicana today.

Balasubramaniam who was with his lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu, and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he was also told that Altantuya had wanted US$500,000 as a commission on a submarine deal she had assisted in in Paris.

In his SD, he said on the day Razak was arrested in connection with Altantuya's murder (Nov 7, 2006), he was with Razak who told him he had sent Najib an SMS the evening before regarding his possible arrest.

"Shortly after, at about 7.30am, Razak received an SMS from Najib and showed this message to both myself and his lawyer. This message read as follows: 'I am seeing IGP at 11am today....matter will be solved...be cool'," Balasubramaniam said.

After that message, and later that morning, Razak was arrested in his office at Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang.

"I told the police everything I knew about...(about Najib's involvement) but surprisingly, all this information was suppressed and omitted," he added.

Asked why he was bringing this up now and not earlier, Balasubramaniam said this was the best time as the prosecution had closed its case and it is clear all his pertinent information had been omitted.

Asked by reporters why he signed his police statement if there were omissions, Balasubramaniam said he was interrogated for seven days and "I just wanted to get out of the lock-up".

(The prosecution has wrapped up its case in the Altantuya trial and the next hearing date is July 23.)

In his 16-page SD, Balasubramaniam made specific claims (see accompanying report) linking Najib with Altantuya and how the police made him sign his statement after a seven-day interrogation.

Anwar said this is a case of an omission of evidence from the trial which could lead to a mis-trial.

"The key questions raised include why there was suppression of evidence by police investigating officers, and was the suppression the reason behind the last minute change of the DPP who first handed the case, Datuk Yusuf Zainal Abiden, or was the suppression behind the sudden switching of the judge fixed to hear the case in March 2007?" asked Anwar.

Najib had first denied ever meeting Altantuya during the Ijok by-election in June last year, when his alleged involvement was an election issue.

When blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin made a statutory declaration on June 18 this year, stating that Najib's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor was among three people present when the Mongolian woman was blown up, Najib called the claim "fabricated", and "a total lie".

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