Mongolian murdered in Malaysia wed accused -witness

KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 (Reuters) A murdered Mongolian model was married to a prominent Malaysian political analyst accused of abetting her killing, a witness told a court today.

The woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu, had also threatened to expose her relationship with the analyst, Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, if he did not pay her 500,000 dollars, her private investigator said in court.

Shaariibuu was shot in the head twice and her body blown up with plastic explosives in a jungle just outside the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur last October, days after she came looking for Razak.

''She said if Razak did not pay her, she would reveal everything to his (Malaysian) wife, his child Rowena...

reporters and the whole world,'' detective Ang Chong Beng, 56, told the court.

During cross-examination by Razak's lawyer, Wong Kian Kheong, Ang said Razak and Shaariibuu were husband and wife.

''Altantuya told me she married Razak two years before in Hong Kong,'' Ang said, when asked how he knew of the marriage.

Razak, 46, a close aide of Malaysia's deputy prime minister, denied he had married Shaariibuu.

''I'm 100 per cent confident she was lying,'' he told reporters during a break in the trial proceedings.

Razak, whom prosecutors said had a year-long affair with the 28-year-old woman, has been accused of involvement in the murder, in a high-profile case that has spawned intense speculation about possible government links.

Razak, who ran his own think-tank, has been charged with abetting the murder while two policemen were charged with the killing. All three have pleaded not guilty, but all face mandatory death by hanging if convicted.

Prosecutors had told the court that Razak, who broke off relations with the woman after a year, had planned the murder.

The hearing is due to run until July or early August and the verdict is not due for months.

REUTERS LPB DS1246