Altantuya trial: 'UTK source of explosives'

SHAH ALAM: Evidence in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder trial has pointed towards the Unit Tindakan Khas (Special Action Unit) as being the source of the explosives used to blow her up, a High Court here heard.

Lead prosecutor DPP Tun Abd Majid Tun Hamzah, continuing his submissions at the end of the prosecution's case, first pointed out that there was no record of explosives used up during the elite squad's training.

"It was on a trust basis and no inspections were done in the homes of officers and the rank and file in respect of ammunition, firearms and explosives," he said, adding that both C/Insp Azilah Hadri and Kpl Sirul Azhar Umar had undergone basic training on explosives.

DPP Tun Abd Majid said that although UTK training officer Deputy Supt M.V. Sri Kumar had testified that it was the responsibility of the officer or personnel whom the explosives were issued to return them to the store, he could not speak for others.

"Clearly, DSP Sri Kumar was not the one responsible for collecting and returning the explosives from the store. He was only the officer in charge," he said.

DPP Tun Abd Majid said several other police witnesses had confirmed that the explosives residue recovered from the crime scene was of the same type used by the UTK.

"Thus it is submitted that there is sufficient evidence to show that the explosives substances found at the scene came from the UTK and that C/Insp Azilah and Kpl Sirul Azhar had access to them and had the opportunity to smuggle them out," the prosecutor argued.

Rebutting a contention that there was no explosion on the night Altantuya was murdered, DPP Tun Abd Majid referred to the testimony of former post-blast investigations head Deputy Supt Muhammad Koey Abdullah that the surrounding trees at the scene must have absorbed the sound of the explosion.

The prosecutor pointed out that Mustaffa Umat, the auxiliary policeman stationed at a dam near the scene who claimed he heard firecrackers that night, had also testified that he had never heard a bomb go off before.

"That explains why he could not tell whether what he heard was an explosion from a bomb," he submitted.

On the presence of the two UTK operatives at Hotel Malaya as captured by closed-circuit television cameras, DPP Tun Abd Majid said the most probable inference would be that they were carrying out surveillance on the deceased.

This, he said, was because a note bearing political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda's handwriting of Altantuya's name and where she was putting up had been found in a bag in C/Insp Azilah's cubicle in Bukit Aman.

The hearing continues on Thursday.
By CECIL FUNG - TheStar