SHAH ALAM, Oct 11 — Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told the High Court here today that he never instructed former members of the Special Action Unit (UTK) Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar to kill Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006, as he had never met the Mongolian woman.

He denied being the mastermind behind the gruesome murder.

"At the material time, I was deputy prime minister. I had never met her, and I’m innocent of this crime. I know Abdul Razak Baginda. He was the defence analyst working under my administration at the material time. That is how I know him.

"He was involved in buying submarines from the French submarine maker, which involved a billion-dollar deal for the nation,” he said.

The former prime minister, 72, said this when queried by his counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, during the hearing of his defamation suit against former attorney general (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas and GB Gerakbudaya Enterprise Sdn Bhd over alleged defamatory statements made about the murder of the Mongolian woman in a book, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness.

When asked about the woman, Najib said: "She was definitely not one of those who was in the higher echelons of the deal. As I know from media reports, she was a purported interpreter. I do not know details of their relationship, but I have come to know later that they were in a romantic relationship”.

He said that Thomas, as the author of the book, should have verified the facts before proceeding with publishing it.

"In the case of SRC International Sdn Bhd and 1Malaysia Development Berhad, Thomas was the AG at the time who brought charges against me.

"He wrote the book after leaving the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), claiming that I was the mastermind behind the murder. It was published by the second defendant and distributed both locally and internationally.

"It is clear that he wanted to smear my reputation in the public domain, in that I became the alleged mastermind behind the murder. My integrity and reputation have been tarnished with baseless accusations,” he said.

The hearing before Judge Datuk Khadijah Idris continues on June 30 next year.

The former Pekan MP filed the suit in 2021, claiming that Thomas had authored and caused the publication of the book which allegedly linked him to the murder.

He claimed the defamatory statements implied that he had ordered Azilah and Sirul to kill Altantuya and that he had confused the public over the murder to cover his tracks.

Najib contended that his reputation was affected by the publication of the defamatory statements, and sought general, aggravated and exemplary damages against both defendants and an order for the defendants to remove the defamatory statements from the book. — Bernama