Emergency motion on Altantuya rejected

The Parliament today rejected an emergency motion by DAP's Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang for a debate on blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin's latest allegations over the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder.

Lim was informed of the decision through a written notice from Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia this morning. Unhappy, Lim later brought up the matter again in the House and questioned why it has been rejected.

Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who was chairing the sitting, said the motion was rejected on the grounds that it would be subjudice to discuss a matter which was before the court.

"There are three cases which are pending in court now," explained the deputy speaker.

The three cases are murder trial of elite police unit members Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri who were both charged with murdering Altantuya, the case against political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda who was charged with abetting with the duo and a sedition case against Raja Petra over an article on the high-profile murder.

Of the three, the prosecution wrapped up its case for the first two yesterday after calling 84 witnesses over 124 days. Submissions will be heard on July 23.

Sirul, Azilah and Abdul Razak have all claimed trial to the charges. They face the death sentence should they be found guilty.

Credibility of Abdullah's premiership

Lim, who submitted a notice for the motion to the speaker's office on Sunday, had said that the matter was urgent and of public importance to be debated in the House.

He noted this was because a statutory declaration signed by Raja Petra on June 18 has implicated Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his deputy Najib Abdul Razak and wife Rosmah Mansor in the case.

"The credibility and legitimacy of the Abdullah premiership and government will suffer a mortal blow if the prime minister, deputy prime minister and Rosmah continue to remain silent on Raja Petra's bombshell allegations in his statutory declaration," Lim had said in the motion.

Najib and Rosmah have repeatedly denied that they were linked to the killing of Altantuya, having previously described the widely-known allegations as nothing more than "slander and concocted stories".

In his two-page statutory declaration, Raja Petra (left) alleged that Rosmah was among three individuals who were at the scene when Altantuya was murdered on Oct 19, 2006.

He named the two other individuals as acting colonel Aziz Buyong, who is described as ‘a C4 expert' and the latter's wife, known only as Norhayati, who is also said to be Rosmah's aide de camp.

Last week, an aide to Najib described Raja Petra's latest claims as "mind-boggling".

Raja Petra further alleged that Abdullah, his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin and a Malay Ruler have been briefed on the matter and are fully aware of the allegation against Rosmah.

He alleged that Abdullah has handed over a written report from military intelligence on the matter to Khairy for "safekeeping".

Altantuya's body is alleged to have been blown up with C4 explosives at a secondary forest in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam.