DAP leader Lim Kit Siang "does not buy" Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar's stand that the courts had exonerated the police of dereliction of duty in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

 

“I challenge Khalid to quote chapter and verse from any one of the judicial decisions where the courts have absolved the police of dereliction of duty in Altantuya’s murder.

 

“The jury is out on this issue, whether the police had been guilty of dereliction of duty in Altantuya’s murder,” held Lim in a statement today.

 

The Gelang Patah MP said Khalid was also “lucky” that there was no Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) or he would be the first IGP to be the subject of complaint of police misconduct for refusing to investigate as to why two elite policemen murdered in cold blood a defenceless Mongolian woman.

 

“Could it be that the number one policeman is just not interested in finding out why two members of the police elite corps, instead of upholding the law, became the most heinous law breakers, even abusing their special position in the police force to secure C4 explosives to do their dastardly deed?

 

“I find any IGP who is indifferent as to the motive for the murderous deed by the two elite policemen most inexplicable and extraordinary, for it is tantamount to a serious dereliction of duty as the number one policeman in the country," said Lim ( left ).

 

Khalid had today said the issue of dereliction of duty on his part did not arise at all.

 

“The case has gone through three levels of hearing, the High Court, the Appeal Court and finally the Federal Court.

 

“Never during any of these trials did the court find that there has been a serious omission of responsibilities by the police,” Khalid had told Malaysiakini .

 

Meanwhile, Lim said Khalid’s statement had strengthened the case for a full inquiry into the unresolved public interest questions on the Altantuya murder case, including whether there had been a dereliction of duty on the part of the police.

 

“Neither the IGP nor the police should be the judge of this question.

 

"Is the IGP prepared to submit the police to a full inquiry by a parliamentary committee on all unresolved questions on the Altantuya murder case?"

 

Former elite cops Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri were sentenced to death over the murder last month.

Nevertheless, the public have continued to speculate over the motive of the killing.

 

Sirul is currently under the detention of the Australian Immigration and Border Protection Department.

 

Malaysia is attempting to extradite him, but Australian law dictates that a person facing the death penalty in his or her home country cannot be sent back.