KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar was today told that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had instructed senior lawyer Cecil Abraham to prepare the second statutory declaration for former private investigator P Balasubramaniam.
Balasubramaniam’s lawyer Americk Sidhu revealed this during the ongoing Malaysian Bar’s annual general meeting (AGM) today, where Balasubramaniam’s SD2 was one of the motions tabled to be discussed.
PKR vice president R Sivarasa tweeted: “Americk Singh Sidhu, PI Bala’s lawyer reveals in Bar AGM that Cecil Abraham told him he did the 2nd SD on instructions from PM Najib.”
Americk, who drafted the Balasubramaniam’s SD I, later confirmed the statement.
Speaking to reporters outside of the AGM’s venue, Americk said he met Abraham at a restaurant near his office at Jalan Ampang two weeks ago.
He claimed that in the 30-minute conversation, Abraham apologised to him over the drafting of SD2 and admitted that it was done on the instruction of Najib.
Americk said he had promised Abraham to keep the information between themselves, but he opted to reveal it today after considering the late Balasubramaniam’s quest for justice.
“Balasubramaniam has been courageous to pursue justice for a Mongolian woman. I felt it is necessary for me to carry on his quest,” he said, in reference to the private investigator who passed away yesterday on heart ailment.
Americk hoped the authorities would take Abraham’s confessions into account and reopen the case.
“We have been saying Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar (both of whom were convicted of Altantuya’s murder) would not have murdered somebody they don’t know.
“The question is who ordered this? Why was the chain of command not tendered out in court?” he asked.
Motion withdrawn
Americk also said the motion to discuss Bala’s SD2 was withdrawn because delegates felt it was technically wrong for the AGM to direct the Bar to setup an independent investigation committee.
He also said the motion was also arguably redundant because the Bar began its probe into the case since last December.
Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, one of the proposers of the motion, told FMT that she might lodged a police report against Abraham for criminal offence for covering up a murder after this.
Balasubramaniam, in his second SD announced on July 4, 2008 retracted all his shocking allegations linking Najib to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
This came a day after he published his first statutory declaration, in which he claimed Najib and aide Abdul Razak Baginda had an intimate relationship with Altantuya.
In the first SD, Bala claimed that he was hired by Abdul Razak to deal with Altantuya’s harassment of the duo and Najib had direct involvement in the murder of the Mongolian national.
Carpet trader Deepak Jaikishan first revealed that a “Tan Sri” lawyer and his son had been involved in the preparation of the second SD in an interview with PAS organ Harakah in December, 2012.
There had been much speculation over the identity of the “Tan Sri” lawyer ever since.
Meanwhile, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, said Najib should respond to the allegation by Americk Sidhu that the second SD was prepared on his instructions.
“The Bar Council should also tell us why there has been a delay in the probe into this complaint. The Bar Council is unusually slow in its probe of this matter,” said Gobind.
