A new twist has been added to the case of the murder of Altantuya Shariibuu, a  young Mongolian woman, in Malaysia in October 2006. The police will now investigate the claim of an MP, Zulkifli Noordin, that he was asked to link the present Prime Minister and his wife to the murder. Zulkifli ressurected the Altantuya saga in the Malaysian Parliament on Wednesday when he claimed that a “third party” had offered him a large sum of money to implicate Najib Tun Razak  in the case. He said the offer was made when he was defence counsel for one of the accused, police officer Azilah Hadri.

The spotlight fell on Najib, when a close friend of his, Abdul Razak Baginda was charged with abetting Azilah, and another special operations officer. Razak was later acquitted, but the two policemen were handed the death sentence.

Altantuya”s case, which made international headlines and soured diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Mongolia, continues to haunt the Prime Minister and never fails to surface during elections. Certain quarters claim that there were behind-the-scenes political manouvreing to hush-up the matter, but this has been dismissed by the authorities.

Najib has repeatedly denied having any links to the case, and even swore his innonce on the Quran.