KUALA LUMPUR: Nine years on, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda still does not know the motive for his lover Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder but noted that many people have inexplicably died in police custody.

Abdul Razak was acquitted of abetting in her 2006 murder, but two police commandos have been found guilty by the Federal Court after a final round of appeal this month.

“Only the two policemen know. Rogue police do kill people, like in so many remand cases,” the political analyst told The Malaysian Insider when asked what, in his opinion, was the motive for the murder.

The two are former special action unit personnel Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar but the motive for the murder was never established. The Federal Court, however, ruled that circumstantial evidence sufficed for it to send the two to the gallows.

Azilah is on Death Row while Sirul is in Australia. Malaysian authorities have applied to have him extradited.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insider recently, Abdul Razak said speculation on the case had gone to the point of being extremely ridiculous.

“The situation has become quite ridiculous in terms of the speculations. It is much of the same speculation but now, more twisted because we have reached the end of a long legal process.

“There is a twist to all this because Sirul escaped and went to Australia,” said Abdul Razak, adding that he is willing to speak now as from a legal point, the criminal case is over.

He also commented on reports of Sirul’s mother lamenting that her son had been framed.

“What do you expect the mother to say?” he asked.

“If you just treat this as a murder and do not politicise it, then it is just a straightforward murder case,” he said.

Abdul Razak insisted that the two policemen had acted on their own accord when committing the murder, adding that, “this was determined by the court”.

“At the end of the day, the court proceedings were so transparent, some of the best defence lawyers were there, including the late Karpal Singh. The judge was so liberal, giving opportunities for everyone to ask questions.”

He questioned why there was an allegation of conspiracy hanging over the case when there was no evidence to prove it.

“There are still people out there who are convinced that police cannot do this without instructions.

“How many people die in remand? The last count was 156 from 2008 and the figure is going up. So who instructed this?”

Evidence in court revealed that the Mongolian woman was either murdered by C4 explosives or was killed first and her remains destroyed on Oct 18, 2006, in the outskirts of Shah Alam.

It emerged during the trial that Abdul Razak, a confidante of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, had enlisted Deputy Superintendent Musa Safri’s help as he could not tolerate the harassment from Altantuya.

Musa was at the time the aide-de-camp for Najib, who was then the deputy prime minister.

On April 9, 2009, the High Court meted out the death sentence on Azilah and Sirul Azhar after a marathon 159-day trial.

On Aug 23, 2013, a three-man Court of Appeal bench acquitted the two policemen due to lack of evidence. In fact, judge Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who delivered the written grounds, said the two should have been freed without their defence called. The bench ruled that the failure to call Musa proved fatal to the prosecution’s case.

Tengku Maimun said it should not be overlooked that the ugly and horrendous episode had started with the request by Abdul Razak to Musa before Azilah and Sirul came into the picture.

The prosecution said there was no need to put Musa on the stand as he was only a peripheral figure in the case and that an affidavit by Abdul Razak in support of his bail application had revealed that the senior police officer’s role was limited to introducing him (Abdul Razak) to the Brickfields police chief.

Even Sirul, who gave an unsworn statement from the dock, had said that Musa was not involved and neither did he (Musa) give any directive.

Sirul had also pleaded with the judge not to impose the death sentence on him, saying: “I am the black sheep who has to be sacrificed to protect unnamed people.”

For a fuller version of the interview, please visit www.themalaysianinsider.com

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 30, 2015.