I am not buying newspaper reports on Altantuya’s mysterious murder case

Updated. 

My ante is up. Too many confusing news reports. Contradictory facts. Sentences left hanging in mid-air. Conspiracies. Quotable quotes.

The Mongolian woman’s murder is a full-blown mystery!

Even Mongolian activists whom I talked to recently had this to say: this is not a simple story of a love gone sour, a woman scorned. This is what THEY want us to believe.

After talking to many, the conclusion is she must be involved in some shady deal, a deal gone VERY bad. Because you dont blow up a woman with explosives because she wants money from you.

They even said it could be an act to frame somebody, done by people who got a lot to lose by seeing Altantuya Shariibuu alive.

People are blown up into pieces with the hope that no one knows that you are gone, when you have something, that could threaten the whole structure, the status quo.

Though the papers tried to paint her as a frivolous “model, beauty, etc”, this woman speaks Russian, French, English and Chinese. A translator. She owns a travel agency? And is educated.

There were rumours which said she tried to extort money from Abdul Razak Baginda, the well-connected political analyst who was charged with abetting her murder with two other cops.

Was it extortion or money owed to her? If she knew Baginda so well and had an affair with him, why did she need private eyes to track him down? Baginda is quite a well-known figure in Malaysia.

He is not a simple, ordinary Romeo, who was silly enough not to cover his tracks after beguiling a young, impressionale beauty.

According to news reports, he was involved in deals with a top politician or was it politicians? Did the relationship between the two, or he and them, go awry? 

Did she come with information worth a lot of money, reputation and political positions? Only then the accusation of extortion would hold water.

Otherwise, we really do not know.

Also it seems naive to think that she comes to ask for money for her son, from a man who isnt connected to her child. And it was said she was pregnant, but actually she wasnt. Also the affair is said to have ended two years  ago. Something’s wrong with the timing.

The police officers’ background are really where to start looking for clues, and the C4 explosives used to blow up this most unfortunate woman, this foreigner. You can’t buy C4 explosives off the rack in Seven-Eleven, can you? I don’t think you can even buy them online.

Police also managed to find Altantuya’s remains very quickly. How? It was supposed to be done in a place and in a manner so that people shouldn’t find out easily. But quite the contrary.

In reality, it was done in a way that it could be found out – the abduction infront of the accused’s house, eye-witnesses, Atlantuya’s sms message to her sister, C4 explosives, special task force police officers as the kidnappers, remains strewn all over the jungle…

It doesn’t gel. It’s too easy and sloppy, this gruesome murder. And why would a top political analyst do such a sloppy job only to get caught? But was it also purposely done so it could be found out in a jiffy?

Yet until today, none of the news paper reports can satisfy my curiosity. Not even after The Star had invested in a reporter doing “investigate reporting” from the exotic land Mongolia.

But I would give Eddie Chua the benefit of doubt. He could have more compelling stories to tell, but perhaps with the self-censorship policies by all newspapers (something even admitted by PM Abdullah Badawi), he would have to restrain from writing those stories, and only manage to file sob-stories about her failed marriages and what not.

And how about the woman police officer who was involved in Atlantuya’s abduction infront of the accused’s house? She was not charged together with the other two. Did she escape because she provided the information?

Also the Mongolian envoy had a lot of information regarding the couple – about their love nests, money-jewelleries changing hands or rather bank accounts – to holiday itinerary. Some information are provided by the family of the woman but other info about the love-birds must have been progressively collected. But for what reason?

Seem some quarters were prepared for this?

I also heard that the accused did not have much access to his lawyers? How come? This is not fair. And yet, the lawyers maintain he is innocent. Strange.

A friend is really worried for his safety in prison. Remember Anwar Ibrahim was reportedly almost poisoned to death. Can Baginda be as strong as Anwar  if the charges were really trumped up against him?

Of course, as Baginda is being taken away, the outburst by his wife “He is not out to become the prime minister. Why are they doing this to him?” (NST, 17 November 2006)  is the key message to what this entire drama is about, some people think.

Does this mean if he is out to become the prime minister, this charge would fit him?

What a price to pay to become prime minister!

Pak Lah, perhaps it is high time you say something about this?