Court Process In Uruguay Delays Jet Engine Recovery

Teoh El Sen

Attorney-General Abdul Ghani Patil has denied rumours that Malaysia was having 'trouble' retrieving the stolen jet engines which are now in Uruguay.

PETALING JAYA: The government is still in the midst of recovering the two stolen Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) F5E fighter jet engines from Uruguay, more than a year after the engines were located in capital of the country, Montevideo.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail said the delay was due to court procedures in Uruguay.

He denied that there was any “failure” or “trouble” in Malaysia getting back the engines.

“We actually won the case in proving that the engines were illegally obtained; however, the other side has appealed on the matter and we’ll have to follow the normal court process,” he told FMT.

The two General Electric J85-21A turbojet engines, which power the US-made F5E fighter jets, were first reported stolen from two RMAF facilities in 2007 but was only discovered on May 22, 2008.

A police report was lodged that same year but the case only came to light in 2009.

It was reported that the engines were sold on the black market to a South American company and was first sent to a premises in Subang Jaya.

The engines then “left” Malaysia and was shipped to Argentina and off-loaded to another vessel bound for Uruguay.

In February last year, Abdul Gani announced that the engines have been traced to Uruguay after the country’s government informed Malaysia of the discovery.

Abdul Gani, who visited Uruguay and Argentina between Feb 15 and 19, viewed the engines which were kept in the military facility under Uruguayan judicial authority.

He said the engines were positively identified as belonging to the government of Malaysia.

The success in finding the engines was attributed to the efforts and collaboration between both governments.

Abdul Gani had said the Uruguayan government had initiated the procedures to return the items.

Documented Evidence

In March last year, Abdul Gani had also said that the government’s investigations into the stolen RMAF F5E jet engines had turned up evidence, in the form of documents and witnesses from Uruguay and Argentina, necessary for instituting criminal proceedings here.

Purchased in 1972, the engines were initially said to be worth RM100 million when the story broke, but the government later clarified that each was valued at RM303,570.

On Jan 6, last year, both RMAF sergeant N Tharmendran, 42, and company director K Rajandran Prasad, 38, claimed trial to charges in connection with the theft of the jet engines.

While Tharmendran was charged with abetting the theft, Rajandran was allegedly responsible for disposing of the stolen items.

Tharmendran, who was also slapped with money-laundering charges, was re-arrested by the RMAF on last Nov 25, but was released after the court found his detention illegal.

Both will be tried together when the hearing of their case comes up on June 14-16.

Meanwhile, Tharmendran’s counsel, N Surendran, said that it was unlikely that the trial here would be affected by the recovery of the engines.

- FMT