Najib Razak
KUCHING: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has performed the ‘sumpah laknat’ at Masjid Jamek Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon to deny he had ordered the kiling of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a news report said.
The former prime minister had taken the oath after he had performed his Friday prayers, reported MalaysiaKini, describing a ‘sumpah laknat’ as an oath beseeching God to curse those who are in the wrong.
“Wallahu, Wabillahi, Watallahi.
“Alhamdulillah, since the time of entering the age of ‘taklif’ [having responsibilities]up to this point, I have never ordered any individual to kill a Mongolian national named Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“I have not known or met the deceased. If I am lying, then may Allah SWT curse me.
“And if I am speaking the truth, may Allah curse those who have slandered me and refuse to repent here and in the hereafter,” he said as reported by MalaysiaKini.
Najib had said that he would take the oath in response to fresh allegations made by former police special action force (UTK) officer Azilah Hadri, who is on death row for the murder of the Mongolian model in 2006.
Azilah, in a statutory declaration made from Kajang Prison last week, had alleged that Najib ordered Altantunya’s murder after Najib had allegedly convinced him that the woman was a foreign spy who posed a threat to national security.
The statutory declaration was filed together with his application seeking a retrial and judicial review of the Federal Court’s decision to reinstate his and another former UTK personnel Sirul Azhar Umar’s conviction and death sentence in 2015.
The Federal Court has fixed April 20, 2020, to hear the application.
Sirul is currently held in an immigration detention centre in Sydney, Australia, after he fled the country in 2013 while on bail.