Suaram to hold 'Ops Scorpene 2.0' dinner

Suaram will host a second dinner, dubbed ‘Ops Scorpene 2.0', to raise more funds for its ongoing litigation against Paris-owned shipmaker DCNS in the French courts, regarding the Scorpene submarine controversy.

The dinner, to be held next Friday, June 15 at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre, is the second such fund-raiser following the NGO’s first such event last July, which raised about RM250,000.

The event, announced by Suaram director Cynthia Gabriel (left) and Fadiah Nadwa at a press conference in Petaling Jaya yesterday afternoon, aims to raise RM300,000 this time around.

It will feature speakers such as French lawyer Joseph Breham, PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, PKR Batu MP Tian Chua, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua and Suaram director Cynthia Gabriel.

“(The dinner) will give a chance to ordinary citizens and civil society organisations to grasp the facts of the scandal that has shaken the nation,” read a Suaram press release that followed the announcement.

The human rights NGO is pursuing a civil complaint against DCNS for allegedly paying 114 million euros in defence kickbacks to Perimekar Sdn Bhd over the Scorpene submarines deal.

The submarines were purchased from DCNS off-shoot Thales International in a 2002 deal inked during Najib Abdul Razak’s tenure as deputy prime minister and defence minister. Suaram filed legal charges against DCNS in 2010, but the case was only recently opened in court.

The group had claimed that, based on the French inquiry, then-defence minister Najib had requested RM1 billion in kickbacks through Perimekar, which was responsible for “support services” in the deal.

In addition, the human rights NGO had last Thursday revealed that Terasasi Ltd - whose director is Najib’s close associate Abdul Razak Baginda - had allegedly sold highly-classified Royal Malaysian Navy documents to French defence contractor DCNS.

Hong Kong-based Terasasi had been accused of funnelling money through its accounts to Najib as “commissions” for the sale of the submarines.

Abdul Razak Baginda was linked to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, and was charged with her murder together with two of Najib’s former bodyguards. However, the political analyst was acquitted without his defence being called.