January 19, 2009

Azilah: I did not tell Razak he can sleep in peace tonight

By Shannon Teoh
SHAH ALAM, Jan 19 - Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri today denied that he had called Abdul Razak Baginda to tell him "you can sleep in peace tonight." He also stuck to his guns and denied even being at the scene of Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder.
Despite constant cross-examination by Tun Majid Tun Hamzah, the deputy public prosecutor, Azilah stuck to his story that he was having supper in Wangsa Maju with his fiancee at the time of the murder of the Mongolian beauty.
He also said he did not see Altantuya again after she left his car earlier in the evening and got into Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar's car.
Azilah and Sirul are accused of murdering Altantuya and the case has been particularly damaging for Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, because of the involvement of Abdul Razak Baginda, one of his closest associates, and Musa Safri, his former aide-de-camp who had allegedly instructed Azilah to "help" Abdul Razak who was being blackmailed by a "Chinese man" and "Chinese woman."
What remained of Altantuya was found in a forest outside Kuala Lumpur over two years ago. Investigators say her body had been strapped with C4 explosives and blown up.
Azilah also said in his testimony that he has been assigned several times to escort Najib.
And from Oct 20, 2006 onwards, he was the DPM's chief escort. Incidentally, that is the day after the murder.
At the Shah Alam High Court today, Azilah said that he had asked Sirul to meet him at Central Market so they could go to Hotel Malaya to "advise" the "Chinese woman" together.
He asked for Sirul's help because he was afraid that the "Chinese man" might attack him.
However, Azilah said that he left his gun in his cabinet before meeting Sirul because he did not always carry it with him as it was uncomfortable and hurt his waist where he keeps his gun.
He did not, however, meet the "Chinese woman" at the hotel.
The next day, he surrendered his weapon after briefing his team of Special Action Unit (UTK) personnel ahead of their assignment to escort Najib in Hong Kong.
Tun Majid asked why he had done so given that there was no firm date set for the assignment.
Azilah replied that they had been scheduled to leave anytime between Oct 21-23.
"But you are on duty until you leave, you need your firearm," Tun Majid insisted but Azilah said it was not necessary.
He claimed that he only retrieved his weapon after returning from Wangsa Maju on October 19. This was because the assignment to Hong Kong had been cancelled and he was due to be chief escort to the DPM beginning the next day.
In the evening of that same day, Oct 19, also the night of the murder, Azilah went to Razak's house and had asked Sirul to come along, fearing that the "Chinese man" might be there even though Razak had told him otherwise.
Tun Majid put it to Azilah that he had come with Sirul that night with the intention of killing the "Chinese woman", which Azilah today identified as Altantuya after being shown a picture of her.
Azilah also said that when Sirul asked to be dropped off at a four-wheel drive vehicle nearby, he did not know whose jeep it was.
"I have never seen it at the office, so how would I know if it is his or not? It is a four-wheeler, for playing in the jungle," he said.
"For hunting, camping, fishing?" Tun Majid asked.
Azilah agreed but said that he had never gone with Sirul to do any of those things.
At Bukit Aman police headquarters, the two had stopped their cars to transfer the Chinese woman from Azilah's car to Sirul's.
In his testimony last week, Azilah said this was because his girlfriend Rohaniza Roslan, who had followed him to Razak's house, wanted to return to Petaling Jaya to meet her friends, so Sirul had agreed to send the woman back to her hotel.
The cross-examination continues tomorrow with Azilah's counsel, Datuk Hazman Ahmad due to re-examine him as well.

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