Najib willing to risk divine retribution over Azilah's SD

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak said he will be swearing a sumpah laknat this Friday, to deny the allegations against him made by convicted killer Azilah Hadri.

A sumpah laknat is an oath, beseeching God to curse those who are in the wrong.

Najib tweeted that he will be swearing the oath at Masjid Jamek in Kampung Baru after Friday prayers this week.

Separately, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi expressed confidence that the people know the latest allegations against Najib are a ‘political ploy’ orchestrated by Pakatan Harapan to divert attention from their failings.

“I’m confident that Najib familiar with the Altantuya issue being highlighted again by Pakatan Harapan.

“He has repeatedly denied involvement and is even prepared to swear in the name of Allah,” he said in a Facebook post today.

Azilah, in a statutory declaration, claimed that the order to kill Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006 had come from Najib, who was the deputy prime minister at the time.

Azilah alleged that Najib and the latter's close associate Abdul Razak Baginda convinced him that the Mongolian national was a foreign spy who posed a threat to national security.

In 2015, the Federal Court overturned the Court of Appeal's decision to acquit Azilah and another former UTK personnel Sirul Azhar Umar's conviction.

However, Sirul had fled to Australia after his acquittal and is currently in an immigration detention centre in Sydney.

Razak Baginda was charged with abetting the pair but was later discharged.

The decision not to appeal Razak Baginda's acquittal and the trial process not establishing a motive for the murder as well as the prosecution's failure to call Najib's former aide de camp Musa Safri, whom Azilah claimed played a key role, to the witness stand led to speculation of a cover-up.

Najib has denied Azilah's allegations, describing it as a complete fabrication and political plot to silence him.