Scorpene broker: Altantuya never part of the deal

The architect of the Scorpene deal, Jasbir Singh Chahl, says murdered Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu was never an interpreter for the submarine deal, nor was she ever involved in the contract.

In an interview published by New Straits Times today, Jasbir said whatever affair Altantuya had with defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a central figure in the deal, was a personal matter.

"His dealings with her had nothing to do with the Scorpene deal. It's unfortunate that it (the affair) coincided with our (submarine deal) timeline.

"Abdul Razak was the only common denominator in this. He was the only link, and a tenuous one, at best," Jasbir is quoted as saying.

Altantuya, said to be a French interpreter for Abdul Razak ( above ), was in October 2006 found shot dead and blown up with C4 explosives in Shah Alam.

Two police officers with the elite Special Action Unit (UTK), Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, who were assigned as bodyguards to then Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak, were convicted for her murder.

Altantuya had allegedly been harassing Abdul Razak for a US$500,000 cut from the Scorpene deal. Abdul Razak, a confidante of Najib, was cleared of her murder after being charged with abetting.

However, Jasbir argued that records by the French authorities showed that Altantuya had never entered France between 1999 and 2006.

"This is not what I am saying, you understand. This is what the relevant French authorities are saying," New Straits Times quotes him as saying.

He added that he too had never met her before and that he only found out about Altantuya after he read about her death in the newspapers.

‘Not bribery’

Jasbir also denied that the RM452 million paid to Perimekar Sdn Bhd from the deal was bribery.

He said the payment was for various services rendered by the company, which among others included project management and integration services and coordination works to ensure they meet the Malaysian government's expectations.

"We've been made out to look like profiteers who just sat back and collected when, in fact, there was a lot of hard, tangible work, that was done," he is quoted as saying.

He said other payments were for the cost of managing 145 Royal Malaysian Navy personnel including 49 officers and dependents, which include:

• Provision of food, accommodation and necessary services to the personnel in Brest, France and Spain for six years
• Health insurance premiums
• Per diem of Euro50 per person
• Return travel fares to Malaysia three times a year

Perimekar Sdn Bhd is owned by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (LTAT), Boustead Holdings Bhd and KS Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd, which is owned by Abdul Razak.

Suaram has filed a case in France against French naval company DCNS over kickbacks allegedly paid out in the Scorpene deal and the probe is still ongoing in Paris.