Razak Baginda Did Not Ask Me To Kill Altantuya, Says Private Investigator

Latest on the Altantuya murder trial from Bernama.

Private investigator P. Balasubramaniam told the High Court here Thursday that throughout his service with Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, the political analyst had never asked him to kill or injure Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He was hired primarily to stop Altantuya from harassing Abdul Razak, he said under cross-examination by Abdul Razak's counsel, Wong Kian Kheong, on the fourth day of the Altantuya murder trial.

Abdul Razak, 46, is charged with abetting Chief Insp Azilah Hadri and Cpl Sirul Azhar to commit the murder in the Federal Territory between 9.54am on Oct 18 last year and 9.45pm the following day.

Azilah, 30, and Sirul Azhar Umar, 35, of the Bukit Aman Special Action Squad are alleged to have murdered Altantuya, 28, at a location between lots 12843 and 16735, Mukim Bukit Raja, here between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20 last year.

Asked about his experience as a private investigator, Balasubramaniam said there were clients who hired him to investigate private matters which they did not want to report to the police.

Balasubramaniam agreed with five suggestions put to him by Wong on why Abdul Razak did not want to lodge a police report against Altantuya who was said to be harassing him at his office and home.

The suggestions were that Abdul Razak did not want publicity, did not want anything to happen to Altantuya and that Abdul Razak's lawyer had told Balasubramaniam to wait for Altantuya to run out of money and return to Mongolian without any incident.

The other two suggestions were that Abdul Razak would be going to Hong Kong on Oct 24, 2006, on the first day of Hari Raya Puasa and that Balasubramaniam had deployed his men at the hotel where Altantuya and her two friends were staying and also at Abdul Razak's office.

Asked whether he agreed that based on these five points, there was no need for Abdul Razak to lodge a report, Balasubramaniam said: "I agree."
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