Sunday, April 17, 2011

WHAT MILITARY OFFENCE DID COL AZMI COMMITTED?

Col Azmi Zainal Abidin whom Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK) has said to have linked to a conspiracy to slander PM Najib and Rosmah with the brutal murder of the Mongolian beauty Altantuya in 2008 over the purchase of the Scopene submarine, is now under investigation by the military. This has been revealed by the Chief of Defence Force, General Tan Sri Azizan Ariffin recently.

It puzzles me to know that it has taken almost three years for the military to finally decide to conduct a Board of Inquiry (BOI) over the case involving Col Azmi. Why wasn’t the BOI conducted when the case first came to light? If indeed what Col Azmi did was wrong from the military standpoint, he should have been punished, and if the offence is severe enough, he should have been discharged from service. Such punishment is within the bounds of the military as officers service in the military is at the discretion of the Supreme Commander i.e. the King.

From my meager understanding of the military law, I honestly do not know what military offence has Col Azmis committed? If the offence is one of attempting to slander PM Najib and Rosmah, then it is to my mind not a military offence. I would think Col Azmi has committed a civil offence and he should be charged to face a civil court.

Based on the little that I know of the case, I personally don’t see a need for a military BOI. And even if Col Azmi has to go through the rigmarole of the Court Martial, and if he is subsequently found guilty and sentenced, this does not mean that he cannot be charge further to face the civil court.

I am not privy to the terms of reference of the BOI, but I think it has more to investigate the extent of information that was revealed to RPK, and who others were involved. I am quite sure there were no military secrets revealed by Col Azmi, and if there was, then he ought to go through the full brunt of military investigation.

I have been told that Col Azmi was originally from the Engineering Corps and opted to join the Intelligence Corps later in his career. This would mean that he is not a ‘thoroughbred’ Intelligence Corps officer, as some would say. And if Col Azmi really did pass the information to RPK with the intention to slander PM Najib and Rosmah, then Col Azmi deserve the punishment that awaits him, though a bit too late.


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

9 comments:

EAGLE said...

Dato',
This is the problem with present military leadership. Suka sangat nak menunjukan kehebatan untuk mengambil tindakan but like you said it was 3 years behind and now the CDF suddenly "terbangun dari tidor" and need to conduct an investigation.
The story has been traveling the world round and round and yet no investigation and now the issue is a police case then suddenly CDF decided to conduct military investigation. Even the investigation has just started, the CDF had announced that there is no such report on the said issue by the military intelligent-what cow! man!
Alahai... Panglima Angkatan Tentera!
So Dato', if you are puzzle by the decision made, apa lagi nak cakap and biar lah Kol Azmi yang bercakap tetapi dia belum bercakap pun dah kena gantung kerja and CDF has preempted the decision on Kol Azmi.
What a cow!!!

Kamal Sanusi said...

Dato'

I believe the decision of Col Azmi has been made.

The establishment of BOI is just another cerekarama in which their investigation will move towards justifying the decision made.

Taking 3 years to start an investigation couple with earlier statement by Punk-5 ATM before an inquiry be done are just agreeing that the said report is there but some how ghaib.

That what I'm saying earlier, the military officers nowadays only good in golfing and living very complacent with selfish attitude.

abdulhalimshah said...

Dato',
This is a case of a bad hindsight, and rather too little too late an action which smacks of a bad taste in the mouth. If the breach had been known much earlier, especially in an intelligence outfit, the inquiry should have been done three years ago, not when that dubious character who suddenly became TV3 interviewee and claiming to be misled by the Colonel.
If this is the quality of Military intelligence officer that prevail in our AF, woe betide the Nation.

EAGLE said...

Will the Punk-5-ATM investigate the report made by the WIKILEAKs on the missing F5E jet engines?
Tak kan diam diam buat bodoh!

Col Roseli said...

Exactly Dato, it's funny. The PAT has said that there was no such information in the military archives; so why the need to investigate a non-existence information. And for that matter, no charges should be levelled against him.

ahmad said...

Dear Dato, an article to recall dated as follows:

Tuesday, May 05, 2009
RPK revealed his informer, but does such person exist?


Finally, Raja Petra revealed his 'reliably informed' source of information as Lt Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin. This Lt Col is the source of RPK's controversial Statutory Declaration which pinned the accusation on the murder of Altantunya to Rosmah.

According to his "reliably informed" source, Rosmah was present with allegedly a C4 expert then Lt Col Aziz Buyong and her ADC and wife to then Lt Col Aziz, Norhayati. Both have since made statutory declarations to deny such allegations, thus returning the burden of proof lies with Raja Petra.

In his latest No Holds Barred column entitled The Mystery of the Missing Confession here or here, RPK disclosed part of his interrogation with the Special Branch during his detention under ISA in September last year.

RPK revealed Lt Kol Azmi as number two man in the Special Branch of the Millitary Intelligence. He also claimed that his MCKK collegian, Dato Nik Azmi Nik Daud or popularly known as Bull encouraged him to do the Statutory Declaration based on this Lt Kol Azmi's information. Bull is a long time Tengku Razaleigh supporter.

RPK claimed he had asked another Ku Li staff, John Pang to double check with Ku Li of the reliability of Lt Kol Azmi. He requested the same from Din Merican with Anwar Ibrahim.

Another name revealed is Dato Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis or popularly known as JJ. RPK claimed to have met JJ at a stall of Jalan Ipoh and was offered money by him to stop implicating Altantunya with Najib. A 'friend' checked with JJ and he has denied meeting RPK after he has stop associating with Tun Mahathir.

Rocky had reported John Pang's denial. I could dig up for Din Merican's old business card and try to verify with him. So is in the case of Bull.

In summary, Lt Kol Aziz Buyong, Norhayati, John Pang, JJ, Monglian rep Syed Abdul Rahman and investigating officer (name forgotten) denied the revelations by RPK.

Balasundram could be a story for RPK to work on. But as far as the court is concern, he comitted perjury and his words have no value. Lets give this one person in favour if RPK.

We are left for confirmation from Niz Azmi, Din Merican, Ku Li and Anwar Ibrahim. If John Pang denied, I would expect the same with Nik Azmi and Ku Li. Din and Anwar has a tendency to do their "PKR thing". Readers either believe or not.

However, all these people's testament will not be as important as the most crucial person i.e. the Lt Kol Azmi claimed to be from the millitary outfit Anggota Tentera Cawangan Khas (ATCK).

My initial check with 'a friend' is that there is non-existence of a Lt Col Azmi. You are entitled to refute because I am not revealing my source. But I'll tell you why Lt Col Azmi may not exist. Simply because the person RPK claimed holding such post is a different person.

arboking said...

Dear Dato'

To my understanding, no one is saying that Kol. Azmi is guilty yet. I believe that he is being investigated for leaking Military Intelligence report to RPK or Nik Azmi.

We need not be unduly worried of Kol. Azmi's innocence as he will surely tell the truth whilst denying committing the alleged offence.

To top it all, I feel he should insist that he was never been acquainted with either Anwar Ibrahim or Raja Petra for that matter. If there are evidence to the contrary, then he has to face it like a true soldier.

Whether he is guilty or otherwise should not cloud the issue of whether military secrets have been compromised by its own personnel. That, I think should be the focus of this BOI.

basri bin omar said...

Salam Dato'

Memang betul Kol Azmi ditauliahkan sebagai Pegawai Rejimen Askar Jurutera DiRaja(RAJD). Mendapat latihan kedet diRoyal Military Academy Sandhurts(RMAS).Kemudian bertukar ke Kor Risik DiRaja.

ZD said...

"kerana nila setitik rosak susu sebelanga"