ALTANTUYA BRUTAL MURDER - We never said C4 explosives were used in Altantuya’s murder, says prosecutor

The Malaysian Insider – 5 hours ago

It was never the prosecution's case that C4 explosives were used in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Federal Court was told today.

Prosecutor Datuk Tun Abdul Majid Hamzah told the five-man bench hearing the appeal against the acquittal of Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar for the murder of Altantuya that police did not use C4 explosives.

"We never said the explosives used were C4, but from day one, they have been saying C4.

"We do not know how the Court of Appeal said C4, we never said C4," he submitted.

He also said the Court of Appeal had erred in drawing adverse inference in not calling DSP Musa Safri as a witness at the trial stage.

Musa was an aide to Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the latter was deputy prime minister.

The Court of Appeal, in allowing the appeal of Azilah and Sirul against their conviction, said the prosecution’s case was weakened by its failure not to call Musa as a witness.

However, in court today, Tun Majid said that Azilah had clearly testified that Musa did not give him any instructions on how to assist Abdul Razak Baginda.

Razak was a close associate of Najib. The former political analyst was charged with abetting the murder of Altantuya. He was acquitted in 2008 without his defence being called.

Tun Majid added that Musa was also offered as a witness to the defence at the close of the prosecution's case.

Later in court today, Azilah's lawyer Kuldeep Kumar submitted that the former chief inspector's evidence under oath was that he was in Bukit Aman on the night of October 19, 2006 and that the station diary supported his alibi.

During trial, the judge ruled that the station diary was not admissible as evidence.

However, in overturning the conviction and acquitting the two former policemen, the Court of Appeal had accepted the station diary as proof.

The Court of Appeal had ruled that trial judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Md Yassin had failed to consider the notice of alibi which revealed that Azilah could not have been at two places at the same time on the night of Altantuya's murder.

The Court of Appeal said the call logs of telecommunication companies tendered by the prosecution were aimed at tracking Azilah’s movement on the day Altantuya was murdered.

According to the exhibits, Azilah was in Pekan Subang at 10.15pm and Kampung Melayu Subang at 10.19pm.

However, the police station diary at Bukit Aman indicated that Azilah was there collecting his weapon, a Glock EAH 387, and two bullet magazines at 10.18pm.

He had then headed to Putrajaya for escort duty with Najib.

The investigating officer in  Altantuya's murder case, ASP Tonny Lunggan, had testified in the trial that the station diary was true and accurate. – June 24, 2014.