PMO: Dr M never met convict ex-commando Azilah in prison

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has never met convicted former police commando Azilah Hadri, who is currently on the death row for the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said today.

In a statement, the PMO said Dr Mahathir has never once met Azilah since the latter was imprisoned, denying news reports which claimed otherwise.

“The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to categorically state that Prime Minister YAB Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad has never met former police commando Azilah Hadri, since the latter’s imprisonment for the murder of Mongolian, Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“It was widely reported today that Dr Mahathir had shook his head and smiled when asked if he had met Azilah. This question came at the tail-end of a press conference following the launch of Bandar Malaysia in Putrajaya yesterday.

“There were also attempts to allude that Dr Mahathir was the VVIP, who allegedly met with Azilah who is on death row at the Kajang Prison, in February this year. Dr Mahathir also dismisses allegations that the government is behind Azilah’s revelation of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s involvement in the murder of Altantuya as stated in his (Azilah’s) recent statutory declaration,” the press statement read.

Azilah made a statutory declaration that was released this week in support of his application for a review of the Federal Court’s 2015 decision to uphold his conviction.

In it, the former commando claimed he was ordered to kill Altantuya directly by Najib, to whom he had been assigned then as part of a protection detail. Najib was the deputy prime minister at the time.

In 2009, Azilah and another ex-commando, Sirul Azhar Umar, were found guilty of murdering Altantuya in 2006 but were released in 2013 on appeal.

Sirul, who fled to Australia prior to the 2015 Federal Court ruling, previously dangled a “tell-all” in return for a review of his death sentence but the government rejected this.

Najib has been circumstantially linked to the case before but there had been no direct connection until Azilah’s controversial claim.

Yesterday, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdulah alleged that Azilah was brought outside the prison in breach of procedures to allegedly meet with a “VVIP”.

The Prisons Department, however, refuted the allegation in a statement today, saying that Azilah never set foot outside the Kajang Prison for the entirety of 2019.