Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed has denied trying to politicise the Altantuya Shaaribuu murder scandal, saying that he was only trying to speak up for his former bodyguard Sirul Azhar Umar.

 

“These two people have been sentenced to death. You have to help them, save them. Sirul was once my bodyguard, why can’t I help him? He is going to get hanged […]

 

“I am accused of politicising this (but) it is not politics. When I talk about this, people say that I am with the opposition, but this is a man’s life.

 

“Supposing that you are sentenced to be hanged for something you didn’t do, and no one wants to help you […] can you imagine being like that?” Mahathir ( left ) said in a video interview that was supposedly recorded on April 10.

 

The video was part of a series of five videos that have been uploaded by the blogger Din Turtle, which was purportedly recorded during a function featuring the former premier and a group of bloggers.

 

Sirul, who was with the police Special Action Unit (UTK), was sentenced to death for Altantuya’s murder along with another UTK member Azilah Hadri.

 

Sirul had claimed that he was only acting under orders, but did not disclose the identity of who gave those orders. Najib had denied ever knowing Altantuya.

 

He is currently under immigration detention in Australia due to a ban on extraditing persons facing execution.

 

Both Azilah and Sirul were then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s bodyguards at the time of the murder.

 

In the interview, Mahathir also spoke of his meeting with Sirul’s mother Piah Samat, but said that she was silent throughout the meeting organised by Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar ( left ).

 

“I asked, ‘Don’t you want to say anything?’ (She) froze ( kaku) .

 

“I think they are living in fear. In fear of what, I don’t know, but they are afraid. (She) never spoke to me.

 

“I asked Mahfuz, ‘What did you tell her, Mahfuz?’ He said he didn’t say anything to her,” Mahathir said.

 

To a question on what can Najib do for Sirul, Mahathir said the least that can be done if Sirul insists on not disclosing the identity of who order Altantuya’s death is not to carry out the death sentence.

 

“If he had indeed killed someone, hang. But he is a policeman. A policeman does not kill people unless those people attack him, or there are people who asked him to do it […]

 

“I was the former prime minister you know? My duty was to advise the king or the sultan whether he should carry out the death sentence or not.

 

“With (the robber) Botak Chin, I said ‘hang’. But there are many that I let go. It is not easy you know, to decide to kill a person,” he said.