KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak has taken a sumpah laknat (swearing in the face of divine retribution) to deny former police commando Azilah Hadri's statutory declaration (SD) that he gave the order to kill Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Najib carried out his oath at Masjid Jamek here after Friday prayers today (Dec 20).
"On this holy Friday and in this holy mosque, I hereby swear that I have never ordered any individual to kill the Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu.
"More so, I had not met nor have even known her," he said in front of the entire congregation.
The former prime minister was accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and former deputy premier Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Sumpah means an oath while laknat means "to condemn" in both Malay and Arabic.
Azilah dropped a bombshell recently when he filed a 17-page SD claiming that he had killed Altantuya on the orders of Najib, who was then deputy prime minister.
The SD was filed by his lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar on Oct 17 as part of his application in seeking a Federal Court review of Azilah's murder conviction, which carries a mandatory death sentence.
In his SD, Azilah claimed he was brought to Najib's residence Seri Kenangan in Pekan, his parliamentary constituency, while he was on duty.
He also alleged that Najib not only ordered the killing but also requested for explosives from the police's Special Actions Unit (UTK) armoury to be used to get rid of Altantuya's body in a covert-style operation.
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