Apologise, retract statement on Altantuya, says Najib to Thomas

KUALA LUMPUR:Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has asked former Attorney-General Tan Sri Tommy Thomas to apologise and retract an allegedly defamatory statement against him over the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu in his recently-published book My Story: Justice in the Wilderness.

In a letter of demand, law firm Shafee & Co, acting for Najib, said it had been instructed to demand an unequivocal public retraction of the statement from the book and an unqualified apology for the alleged defamation in chapter 42 under the title "Altantuya".

"Our client has also instructed us to demand damages from you for the injury caused to his reputation of RM10 million and also an undertaking not to repeat the allegations and comments," it said.

The letter also stated that by clear inference and innuendo, Thomas had conveyed the message that he, as the then AG and public prosecutor, was satisfied of the truthfulness of the allegations by two convicted persons that Najib was involved in directing them to murder Altantuya.

"Your impugned statement stated of our client was grossly negligent, reckless, irresponsible, deliberate, malicious and aimed to lower our client’s esteem and good reputation in the eyes of the public and further expose our client to public hatred, scorn, odium, contempt and ridicule," it said.

The letter added that the statement was clearly motivated by mala fides and principally done in Thomas's selfish pursuit of seeking cheap publicity fuelled by his ego, sensationalism and profiteering.

"Therefore, we demand a satisfactory reply from Thomas before 12 noon this Friday; if we did not receive, our clear instruction is to institute legal proceedings early next week," the letter stated.

Separately, lawyer Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu, in a statement today, said Thomas had got the facts wrong in his memoir, particularly on the chapter on the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC), a case involving his client, former AIAC chairman Sundra Rajoo.

He said the fact was the judicial review was filed first in court before the charges were filed against his client as opposed to what was stated in his book.

“Most important is that the judicial review matter is still pending in the Federal Court; to come out and say all these, it is sub judice and defamatory; as a former AG, he should have known better,” he said.