Burmaa Oyunchimeg, first cousin of Altantuya Shaariibuu, arrives at the Shah Alam High Court January 23, 2019. — Picture by Mukhriz Hazim

SHAH ALAM, Jan 23 — The first cousin of Altantuya Shaariibuu claimed today that the murdered Mongolian model had shown her a photo of herself, her lover Abdul Razak Baginda, and a deputy prime minister named “Razak”.

Testifying as first witness in the family’s RM100 million civil lawsuit against the Malaysian government, Burmaa Oyunchimeg said Altantuya showed pictures of her trip to Paris with Abdul Razak after she flew back to Mongolia following a trip to Singapore in March 2005.

“I remember I saw a picture of three people, two men and Altantuya. I asked her who they were, and she said one was the deputy prime minister and the other was Razak who worked with him and do business together.

“I asked her if they were brothers because of the same name. She said no but they were best friends, business partners and worked together,” she told the High Court here.

Abdul Razak was a political analyst and had headed a think tank called the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre based in Kuala Lumpur previously.

He was also an adviser to Datuk Seri Najib Razak when the latter was defence minister (2000 to 2008) and deputy prime minister (between January 2004 and April 2009) before taking over as prime minister from April 3, 2009 to May last year.

Najib has repeatedly denied knowing Altantuya or that he had any part in her death.

When shown a photo of Najib being flanked by Abdul Razak and a woman at a table, Burmaa said the woman in the photo was not Altantuya.

“I want to say that this is exactly the picture she showed me but the girl in this copy is not Altantuya. That one I saw had her in it,” she said when the photo was shown in court.

The photo shown was published by PKR’s vice-president Chua Tian Chang who later admitted to doctoring in 2007.

Burmaa also told the court that Altantuya had confided that Abdul Razak had employed people to threaten and frighten her prior to her cousin’s disappearance.

She said Altantuya came back to Malaysia in October 2006 to collect due payment from Abdul Razak for translation services in a business deal she had done in Europe.

“She said she was not going to be frightened because she came to get what she was entitled to.

“I also thought Razak was a nice person so I didn’t think much of it that time. I found out later when I was in Malaysia that she lodged a police report about this,” she said.

She said Altantuya told her that Abdul Razak had refused to see her even after trying several times at his house and office.

Asked how she came to know about Altantuya’s disappearance, Burmaa said Namiraa Gerelmaa had called her from a hotel in Malaysia that Altantuya had not return after she had gone alone to Razak’s house on October 19, 2006.

“Namiraa called and asked me what to do. I advised her that if Altantuya did not return after an hour she should go to a police station and lodge a report,” she said.

Burmaa said the last time she met Altantuya was in Hong Kong in August 2006 when she came to visit her for two nights.

“She told me she was going to Malaysia to visit Razak and sometime after Altantuya’s August trip, Razak SMS-ed me that he did not want to see her again.

“Altantuya said it was a small misunderstanding and told me not to reply him. I lost my phone after and Razak did not contact me again,” she said.

Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh said Burmaa was supposed to testify as the second witness initially but was brought forward in the witness order because of time-constraint.

“She’s from overseas and might be leaving soon.

“There is a fear that she might not complete her evidence giving on time and it would be problematic for our witnesses to travel back and forth,” he told a press conference after today’s hearing.

Burmaa had earlier told the court she is currently employed as a sales associate at US department store Macy’s in Chicago, Illinois where she currently lives.

Also present were Abdul Razak’s lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon and senior federal counsel Norinna Bahadun for the government.

The hearing resumes tomorrow morning with the cross-examination of Burmaa, followed by Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev who is expected to take the witness stand.

Altantuya’s parents Shaariibuu and Altantsetseg Sanjaa, and Altantuya’s two sons had on June 4, 2007 filed the civil lawsuit to claim compensation for the mental shock and psychological trauma they suffered over her death.

However one of Altantuya’s two sons, 15-year-old Alatanshagai Munkhtukga, was removed as plaintiff when he died in 2017.

In the lawsuit where Altantuya’s family is seeking RM100 million as compensation, Sirul Azhar Umar, Azilah Hadri, Abdul Razak and the government of Malaysia were named as defendants.

Sirul and Azilah were convicted by the High Court in 2009 of killing Altantuya. They succeeded in overturning their conviction at the Court of Appeal in 2013, but the Federal Court in 2015 restored their conviction and sentenced them to death.

Abdul Razak who was accused of abetting the two former police officers in her murder was acquitted.

Sirul had escaped to Australia after the death sentence and is currently under detention there as Australian laws do not allow extradition of anyone to a country where they will be killed. Azilah is on death row here.