Najib agrees with Kit Siang — reopen high-profile murder cases

(FMT) – They may have different views on many issues but longtime political rivals former prime minister Najib Razak and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang today agreed on a common issue — both want past high-profile murder cases to be reopened for investigations by a special team.

Najib said it had been a decade since he was accused by Pakatan Harapan and their “propaganda experts” of being involved in the murders of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, former deputy public prosecutor Kevin Morais and banker Hussain Najadi.

“Hence, it is time for justice for me and for the victims’ families. We must give space to all Malaysians, who have accused me and slandered me, to be remorseful for the accusations they have thrown at me.

“I welcome Kit Siang’s assertion for the cases to be reopened and for a special investigation team to be set up.

“I urge the prime minister to support this proposal by Kit Siang and I,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Najib’s post was in response to a proposal by the DAP MP for a special inquiry to be launched into cases of mysterious deaths and how they could be resolved.

“These mysterious deaths would include mysterious deaths linked to the investigation of 1MDB, such as the murder of AmBank founder and banker Hussain Najadi, the mysterious death of DPP Kevin Morais, the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and the death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock,” Kit Siang had said in a statement yesterday.

Najib said the irony of the situation was that Lim had, in a statement on July 2015, become one of the first individuals to try and link him with Hussain’s murder.

“The late Hussain Najadi was murdered by a hired killer in July 2013. For two years, no one accused me of anything.

“But in July 2015, after the RM2.6 billion issue began to spread, Kit Siang, Hussain’s son Pascal and Sarawak Report began to slander me by linking me to Hussain’s murder, because he was the founder of Ambank and apparently was about to expose the issue of RM2.6 billion being deposited in my account.

“I see now that Pascal and Clare Rewcastle-Brown, the founder of Sarawak Report, have become friends.

“It seems that Pascal is now good friends with Clare and he would be a special guest at the launch of her book (on 1MDB) in London,” he said.

Najib said Hussain had sold all his shares in Ambank in 1982 and no longer held any links to the bank for 31 years until he was brutally murdered.

Najib said he did not know why Hussain was murdered, although it was assumed it was over his knowledge over the RM2.6 billion deposit.

“It is quite strange because all (other staff) of Ambank and Bank Negara Malaysia, who knew about the money being deposited, are still alive,” he said.

The Pekan MP said the PH government had the power over all investigation papers on the three murders and investigation agencies.

“There is no reason for them to take this step (to reopen investigations) immediately, unless they still have plans to use it as ammunition in the future to continue to slander me.

“It must be remembered that slander is a bigger sin than murder.

“This is why I want all accusations of murder against me to be probed and concluded so that we can know who was really at fault,” he said.

A source close to Najib said the former prime minister wants all the cases investigated conclusively.

“Yes, he wants all these investigated conclusively. There is no excuse for authorities not to act as they have all the investigation papers and access to all witnesses.

“Najib said there are three human lives involved and he wants people to know the truth. He cannot stand to be linked or implicated in any way over three humans who died tragically and wants the slander and propaganda against him to end once and for all,” the source said.

The source added that if the PH government does not reply to these calls, “he may even get his aide to make a police report over these three murders and pressure the police to act”.