A prominent political analyst with close ties to Malaysia's ruling party pleaded innocent yesterday to the charge of abetting the murder of a Mongolian woman, whose body was reportedly blown up by explosives.
Abdul Razak Baginda, 46, took the plea at the Kuala Lumpur High Court and demanded a trial, which will begin on Dec. 14 in Shah Alam, the state capital of neighboring Selangor State where the murder was allegedly committed last month.
If found guilty, Abdul Razak faces the death penalty. Two policemen have separately been charged with murdering the woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old model, teacher and translator.
PHOTO: AP
The two -- Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Constable Sirul Azhar Umar -- are part of an elite unit tasked with VIP protection, and both also face the death penalty if convicted. They have not entered a plea yet.
The case has gripped the nation and whipped up media a frenzy unseen in recent times because of the involvement of Abdul Razak, who runs a think tank and is known to be close to the ruling party, as well as Malaysia's deputy prime minister.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has pledged a thorough investigation, while the country's police chief promised there would be no cover up.
The local press has reported Abdul Razak had an affair two years ago with Shaariibuu, but his lawyer has insisted there was no romantic relationship.
According to prosecutors he conspired with Azilah and Sirul on Oct. 18 to kill Shaariibuu sometime between the night of Oct. 19 and early Oct. 20.
Prosecutors have not said how Abdul Razak knew the policemen or what their motive was in killing Shaariibuu.
Police DNA tests have confirmed that human remains found in a jungle clearing outside Kuala Lumpur earlier this month were Shaariibuu's. The local press has reported she was shot twice and her body blown up with explosives.
Police have released few other details of the case. Mongolia's honorary consul to Malaysia, Abdul Rahman Alhabshi, has said Shaariibuu came to Malaysia last month, but hasn't said why.
The Star newspaper reported on Wednesday that Shaariibuu was married twice to Mongolian celebrities and had two children.
It said she trained as a model but never worked professionally.
Abdul Razak is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow, and of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
A French-Algerian man went on trial in France on Monday for burning to death his wife in 2021, a case that shocked the public and sparked heavy criticism of police for failing to take adequate measures to protect her. Mounir Boutaa, now 48, stalked his Algerian-born wife Chahinez Daoud following their separation, and even bought a van he parked outside her house near Bordeaux in southwestern France, which he used to watch her without being detected. On May 4, 2021, he attacked her in the street, shot her in both legs, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. A neighbor hearing
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS