KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 19 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today withdrew his defamation lawsuit against former attorney general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas, after the latter acknowledged that he has not known of any evidence linking Najib to the 2006 murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In a press conference today, Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah announced that his client had agreed to settle the defamation lawsuit against Thomas and publisher GB Gerakbudaya Sdn Bhd without any order for legal costs.
Najib had on October 27, 2021 sued Thomas and the publisher over the former AG’s book My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, claiming that the memoir had defamed him by allegedly linking him to a purported conspiracy to murder Altantuya.
Shafee read out what Thomas had stated in a signed statement to the High Court in Shah Alam today:
“I stand by my statements and opinion expressed in Chapter 42 of my book, My Story: Justice in the Wilderness, that Sirul and Azilah’s statutory declarations corroborated one another.
“I accept, however, that since the publication of my book in 2021, I am not aware of any evidence linking Najib to the murder of Altantuya, although I understand there has been investigations since the publication of the book,” Shafee said when reading out Thomas’s statement in the press conference that was streamed live on Najib’s Facebook page.
In 2015, the Federal Court had upheld the conviction of former chief inspector Azilah Hadri and former corporal Sirul Azhar Umar over Altantuya’s murder.
Shafee also read out the rest of Thomas’s statement, where the former AG said he would include his statement above on the same pages of the book where the allegedly defamatory statements are carried, if the book is reprinted or republished in the future.
Shafee explained what this meant: “So when people read the reprinted or republished book, it will be stated that there is no evidence since 2021 that links Datuk Seri Najib with Altantuya’s murder.”
The book’s publisher, GB Gerakbudaya, had also signed the statement to adopt what Thomas had said to the court.
Shafee said Thomas’s statement is important, as Najib had managed to uphold his reputation today.
“Because Datuk Seri Najib, from the start, he did not place importance on any financial compensation. He only placed importance on his reputation as a former PM and one of the famous personalities from Pahang, that he is not involved at all with Altantuya’s murder where two persons have already been found guilty,” he said.
“My client is very happy. For many years he has been upset, because there’s no evidence at all, and yet there are a lot of rumours that has been whipped up very falsely, that he was apparently involved in the murder.
“So he’s very happy today that at last there is settlement, and that Tan Sri Tommy Thomas has admitted as far as since 2021, there has never been any further evidence or any evidence, even though there have been further investigations by the police at the request of many people, including the father of Altantuya,” he said.
Shafee said the admission by Thomas in court today “should put to rest all the rumours” about Najib in relation to the Altantuya case.
The defamation suit came up today before High Court judge Datuk Khadijah Idris.
When Najib filed the defamation lawsuit in 2021, he had sought for various court orders, including for compensation, an apology as well as the removal of the allegedly defamatory statements from the book.
Recommended reading:
- Najib sues Tommy Thomas for defamation over book chapter on Altantuya murder, seeks apology, compensation
- Altantuya was murdered 18 years ago — Here’s what happened since, as Azilah sets to commute death penalty
- Altantuya’s convicted killer Azilah avoids death penalty as Federal Court reviews sentence to 40 years and 12 strokes of cane
