‘Act of treason puts navy at risk’

If it is true that military secrets were sold, Azmin Ali says the act can be considered as treason and Najib has to explain.

PETALING JAYA: If it is true that Malaysian military secrets were sold, it puts the nation’s naval force at risk, said PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

He was referring to Suaram’s recent expose, which involved the alleged selling of secret documents with details on the Malaysian Navy’s Scorpene-class submarine, to a French company.

The act, said Azmin, amounted to “treason of the highest order.”

“Revealing these strategies have allowed for the Scorpene’s weaknesses to be taken advantage of.
“This action has endangered the lives of our soldiers handling the already operational Scorpene submarines,” he told reporters here today.

The exchange, which supposedly took place during the early 2000s, occured when Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak served as Malaysia’s defence minister.

As such, Azmin said Najib had much to answer for.

FMT previously reported Suaram’s revealing of the sale of the documents -which supposedly have an evalution by the Navy of the Scorpenes and contract details – to French-based DCNS for 36 million euros (RM142 million).

Suaram’s lawyers said that the secret document was sold by Terasasi (Hong Kong) Ltd, whose directors are Abdul Razak Baginda and his father Abdul Malim Baginda.
Both are believed to be closely linked to Najib.



The document was allegedly sold to Thales International, also known as Thint Asia, a subsidiary of DCN (later known as DCNS).

DCNS is the company central in the legal suit filed by Suaram in 2009 in the French courts, which recently commenced a judicial inquiry at the Tribunal De Grande Instance in Paris.

The inquiry revolves around the RM7.3 billion deal to purchase two Scorpene submarines with DCNS and Spainish Navantia in 2002.

Immediate probe needed

Azmin then asked how Najib’s advisers were able to sell this document and demanded that the police, MACC and the armed forces look into the matter immediately.

At the same press conference, former Brigadier-General (Air Force) Abdul Hadi Abdul Khatab called this episode a “security breach.”

He also criticised a defence minister’s powers when dealing with the military, calling it “too centralised”.

Abdul Hadi said a minister should be looking into defence policies instead of getting involved in equipment and arms trading.