Harakahdaily

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6: French police may soon ask Prime Minister Najib Razak to give his statement over the Malaysian government’s purchase of Scorpene submarines from a French firm, in which deal a whopping commission of RM540 million had allegedly been paid to a crony of his.

According to online news portal FreeMalaysiaToday, two lawyers from France arrived in Malaysia three weeks ago to discuss the police report that is due to be lodged in Paris soon.

“All documents including newspaper cuttings and reports regarding the murder of Altantuya and the Scorpene submarines have been given to them,” the news portal quoted an unnamed source as saying.

A tale of corruption and sex

Altantuya Shaaribuu was a Mongolian translator, whose body was found blown up by military-grade explosives in a jungle clearing in Malaysia in 2006. She is alleged to have acted as a go-between – a modern-day Matahari – for Najib’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda in the billion ringgit submarines deal.

Razak Baginda has admitted that Altantuya was his former lover, while a private investigator P Balasubramaniam has stated in a statutory declaration that she had also been Najib’s mistress at one time. So far Najib has denied ever knowing Altantuya.

The commission paid by Armaris – the vendor of the submarines - was allegedly paid into an account belonging to one of Razak Baginda’s firms.

According to the news portal, the report would be lodged with the Paris police because the Malaysian police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had not taken any action to investigate the swirl of allegations against Najib, even though he was the Defence Minister at the time when the submarines were bought.