Parliament: I was told to link PM and wife to Altantuya murder, says Zul Noordin

(The Star) - Zulkifli Noordin (Independent-Kulim-Bandar Baru) dropped a bombshell in the Dewan Rakyat Wednesday when he claimed he was once asked to help link the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.

The lawyer, who was recently sacked from PKR, didn’t say who had asked him to do so.

Zulkifli, who had discharged himself as a defence lawyer for one of those accused of the murder -- Chief Insp Azilah Hadri -- during the hearing in 2007, said he was asked to make a statutory declaration linking Najib and Rosmah to the Mongolian woman’s murder.

“I myself was asked to make a sworn statement that both of them were involved."

“The rewards offered for doing that could have shaken my faith,” the Islamic hardliner said.

“I discharged myself from the court case because there was an attempt by a third party to interfere in the case,” he said in his motion of thanks on the Agong’s Address.

Zulkifli also took potshots at private investigator P. Balasubramaniam, who had made a sworn disposition in connection with the murder case in 2008, but retracted it the next day.

He said the “slanderous statements” that had been made against the Prime Minister had been unending.

“How can the two accused be willing to be sentenced to death if it was true that both the Prime Minister and his wife were involved in the murder?"

“I’m sure they would have revealed it if this was true."

“The Prime Minister had sworn on the Quran denying his involvement with Altantuya,” he said.

Zulkifli also claimed that in 2004, he was asked to link the son of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz to the murder of a man.

“I was asked to ensure that Nazri’s son was connected to the murder case. I thank Allah that I managed to stay away from such things,” he added.

On PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Zulkifli called for the Opposition Leader’s sodomy case to be transferred to the Syariah Court instead of the civil court.

He said the proceedings should be held at the Syariah Court because it can hear offences related to qazaf (criminal defamation).

“Proper justice can be then be carried out,” he added.

Anwar, 63, had claimed trial to sodomising his former personal aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, 25, at the Desa Damansara Condominium in Bukit Damansara between 3.01pm and 4.30pm on June 26, 2008.