The PKR vice-president said, however, that she was unsure if she was a suspect or a witness in police investigations, pointing out that the police had called her a witness, but that their questions seemed to paint her as a suspect. “This is mala fide (in bad faith),” Nurul Izzah told reporters at the police headquarters here today after her statement was recorded. “We should not be asked to shut up on issues of corruption or of buying submarines,” added the Lembah Pantai MP.

Suaram secretariat member Cynthia Gabriel, who was also recently investigated for sedition, reportedly said that the July 19 dinner here had been organised to raise funds for the judicial inquiry in France on alleged corruption in Malaysia’s purchase of two Scorpene submarines from French naval defence giant DCNS.

Nurul Izzah’s lawyer, N. Surendran, who accompanied her at the police station today, said his client was asked if she had given a speech on Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder and on the Scorpene submarines.

According to Surendran, the police also asked Nurul Izzah if she had “incited those present at the dinner”.

Nurul Izzah stressed that the police should focus their resources on investigating “actual crimes” like the recent spate of shootings, instead of on such a “wasteful exercise”.

Suaram lawyer William Bourdon said last Tuesday that the French court intends to deliberate on the question of Altantuya’s murder.

Abdul Razak Baginda’s company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, reportedly received RM574 million in commission for providing support and co-ordination services to Putrajaya in the Scorpene acquisition in 2002, back when Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the defence minister.

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and human rights groups have linked the procurement deal to the murder of Altantuya, who was purportedly Abdul Razak’s translator, in 2006.

Abdul Razak, a close confidante of Najib, was jointly charged with two policemen with her murder, but was later acquitted without his defence called.