A Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) personnel with the rank of sergeant and a company director will be charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court later this morning in connection with the missing two RMAF F-5E jet engines.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail said the RMAF personnel would be charged with stealing while the company director with disposing off stolen properties.

"Investigations revealed that both F-5E jet engines were removed from the Material Udara 1 (Matra 1) godown in Kuala Lumpur as a result of a collaboration between an RMAF personnel with the rank of sergeant and a company director to dispose off both jet engines," he said in a statement late last night.

f5e fighter plane 020905 He said based on information from witnesses and documents obtained, he has ordered the duo to be charged.

The sergeant will be charged under Section 380 of the Penal Code to be read with Section 109 of the same code, while the company director, under Section 414 of the code.

The jets engines were found missing in 2007 while being taken for a routine maintenance from the 12th Squadron (Scorpion) in Butterworth to the RMAF godown in Kuala Lumpur.

The jet engines were discovered stolen by RMAF on May 22, 2008 and a police report was lodged on Aug 4 the same year.

Only rank-and-file involved

On Monday, Abdul Gani Patail told the media that no senior air force officers were involved in the theft from a military airbase in Sungai Besi in 2007.

lingam tape panel meeting 031007 abdul gani patail He said that only rank-and-file officers were behind the missing US-made jet fighter engines which Malaysia purchased in 1975.

He also revealed that the final destination of the two engines was Uruguay. He said he was not sure if the engines were still there or if they had been transferred elsewhere.

"The priority is now to find the jet engines," he said.

Abdul Gani ( right) said Malaysia had also requested assistance from the US and also Interpol to help in the investigations.

Based on military and police investigations, Abdul Gani said the container containing the jet engines was off-loaded in Argentina.

"From there, it boarded another vessel heading towards Uruguay," he addedi.

Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had before this revealed that apart from the two engines, other related defence aviation equipment had also gone missing.

-  Bernama