Five years after the Federal Court found him guilty for murder, former cop Azilah Hadri has laid the blame for the 2006 killing of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu at the feet of Najib Razak, whom he claims gave a “shoot to kill” order on her.

Folks, this is huge. Way, WAY bigger than the alleged pocketing of a RM2.6 billion donation from a Saudi prince or anything else the Jibster is currently on trial for.

But that’s only IF the Federal Court agrees there’s good reason to review its 2015 decision that sentenced Azilah and fellow police commando Sirul Azhar Umar to death, and re-examine the role Najib, and everyone else Azilah has now accused, played.

In case you need your memory jogged, you can read this comprehensive guide detailing what went down in the murder case, or watch Al Jazeera’s Murder in Malaysia. The TL;DR version, though, is this: Altantuya had been in Malaysia just a few days when she went missing sometime in October 2006.

Three weeks later, her remains were found in a jungle near Shah Alam, apparently blown up. Azilah and Sirul were arrested and charged with her murder, while another person was accused of abetting the them. That person was political analyst and close associate of then DPM Najib, Abdul Razak Baginda, who admitted to having been in a relationship with the victim.

Azilah and Sirul were found guilty, then acquitted, then found guilty again. However, Abdul Razak was acquitted without being asked to enter his defence. And here’s the other thing: Despite loads of accusations (mainly from then Opposition politicians), Najib has always denied knowing or even meeting Altantuya. 

Azilah’s new statutory declaration, however, alleging Jib told him the Mongolian national was a foreign spy and she was to be “arrested and destroyed” might change things … or it might not.

You see, statutory declarations are generally used by a person to declare something to be true. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the statements contained within an SD ARE true. What the court has to decide now, therefore, is whether the stuff in Azilah’s SD is enough for the conviction against him and Sirul to be reviewed.  Sirul fled to Australia shortly before the Federal Court’s verdict was delivered in 2015 and is currently in a detention centre there.

Najib has, unsurprisingly, called the convicted cop’s statements lies by a “desperate person seeking to escape the gallows.” But more importantly, he’s claiming it’s all part of a conspiracy by the Pakatan Harapan government to throw him in jail because, get this, and we quote (because it’s too good not to): “They are finding it difficult to counter or rebut what I post on social media or reveal in my speeches during ceramah. There are analysts who say that the facts I produce are the ‘sharpest weapons’ … The things I posted and revealed contributed to Pakatan Harapan’s crushing defeat in the Tanjung Piai by-election.”

Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay Jibby, that’s the main reason. 🙄

Meanwhile, while the Jib’s maintaining his innocence, Abdul Razak Baginda’s lawyer has called on A-G Tommy Thomas to initiate contempt proceedings against Azilah for his SD. The reason is the statements impact an on-going civil case involving Altantuya’s family, who’re suing Azilah, Sirul, Razak and the government, over her death.

TT has yet to respond and the police say they will look into Azilah’s allegations only after they receive a copy of it. However, one person with an interest in the case is Altantuya’s dad, who notes that the latest revelation presents a chance for Malaysia to come clean.

He’s not entirely wrong, of course. There’re so many things about the case that didn’t make sense. However, unless the apex court is convinced there’s new evidence, there’s not a whole lot that can be done.