Azilah Hadri and another police officer were sentenced to death in 2015 for killing 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu. At the time of the murder, they were serving as Najib’s security.
Najib is currently on trial over an alleged multibillion-dollar fraud involving a government fund.
Azilah said Najib verbally issued the order during a meeting on October 17, 2006 but Najib denied the allegation and called it a “complete fabrication,” local news portal Malaymail reported.
The former security officer said that Najib, who at the time served as deputy defence minister, alleged that the woman was a foregin spy and that she posed a danger to Malaysia.
He also requested her body and all evidence to be removed and when Azilah asked what he meant by that, Najib allegeldy answered “‘Shoot to kill’ while performing a cutthroat gesture.”
Najib “ordered me to blow up that foreign spy’s body using explosives,” Azilah adds in his statutory declaration.
The woman’s remains were found in a forested area near Puncak Alam. She was shot twice and then blown up by explosives. Investigators said “she pleaded with her abductors to spare the life of her unborn child,” according to This Week In Asia.
Azilah and his colleague were arrested soon after the body was discovered.
Shaaribu was in a relationship with defence analyst and Najib’s adviser Abdul Razak Baginda, for whom she interpreted during 2002 meetings at which Malaysia’s purchase of two submarines were discussed with a French shipbuilding giant.
Prior to the murder, Shaaribu reportedly filed a report with the police hours before she went missing. She admitted she was blackmailing Razak and that he promised to kill her.
Abdul Razak was placed under investigation but was freed soon after due to lack of evidence. He is now living in the UK.
A private investigator claimed in a statutory declaration that Najib too had a romantic relationship with Shaaribu, according to This Week in Asia. Najib, however, denied he even knew her and blamed the current government for politically attacking him with these claims, Reuters reported.
