[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has issued a demand letter to former Attorney General Tommy Thomas for defaming him in his recently released memoir “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness.”
Najib’s lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, said his client was seeking an apology and RM10 million in compensation.
“If we do not receive a satisfactory response from you by this Friday, our clear instruction is to start legal proceedings early next week,” he said.
In the demand letter to Thomas, Najib said that around January 31, he had published a book and the alleged defamation was in chapter 42 under the title “Altantuya” which ran from pages 400 to 405.
The letter also said that, by clear inference and hint, Thomas had conveyed the
message that he, as then attorney general and prosecutor (between June 6, 2018 and February 28 of last year), was satisfied with the veracity of the accusations of two convicted people that Najib was involved in ordering them to murder Altantuya Shaaribu.
“Through clear and compelling inferences and insinuations, he has conveyed the message to all readers of his book that regardless of the court decisions, our client was guilty of directing the Altantuya murder,” he said.
The notice also calls for an immediate and unequivocal public retraction of the book’s statement and a commitment not to repeat the allegations and comments.
On December 8, former police officer Azilah Hadri’s last legal attempt to escape the death sentence for the Altantuya murder failed after the Federal Court dismissed his request for review to overturn a final 2015 ruling and order a new trial. .
The five-member court, chaired by Malaya’s chief judge Azahar Mohamed, said there was no judicial error or violation of any written law that would allow for review.
Azilah, who had been convicted of murdering Altantuya, along with his partner Sirul Azhar Umar, issued a statutory statement (SD) as part of a request for review before the Federal Court.
In his SD, which was not erased by the court, Azilah said, among others, that Altantuya’s former lover, Abdul Razak Baginda, and high-ranking police officer Musa Safri were aware of Najib’s “instructions”.
Azilah, in her attached affidavit, said it was Najib who had ordered the “shoot to kill” order in Altantuya.
Razak was acquitted of complicity in the Altantuya murder case, while Najib has strongly denied allegations of his involvement.
Azilah and Sirul were sentenced to death nine years after Altantuya was killed in a forest near Shah Alam and her body exploded with explosives in 2006.
Altantuya’s father, Setev, his wife, Altantsetseg Sanjaa, and Altantuya’s son, Mungunshagai Bayarjargal, have filed a RM 1 billion lawsuit, naming Razak, the government, Sirul and Azilah as defendants.
The family, which alleges conspiracy in the Altantuya murder, is seeking RM100 million in damages, including dependency claims.
Sirul fled to Australia before the final verdict and is currently being held in an Australian detention center.
Razak, who was charged with complicity in the murder, was released at the end of the prosecution case.
Neither Sirul nor Azilah, who is on death row in Kajang Prison, have contested the lawsuit.
We are live on Telegram, subscribe Here for the latest news and announcements.
