Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said he had “very reliable information” that Azilah had met a “VVIP”, among other individuals, outside prison after February.

“I would not say who that person is or whether the person is a politician,” he said after attending Azilah’s murder case review application at the Federal Court registry today.

Najib is seeking to intervene in Azilah’s bid for a review of his murder conviction. The former Special Action Unit (UTK) commando had also filed a statutory declaration (SD) for the review application.

Azilah alleged that the order to kill Altantuya came from Najib, who was then the deputy prime minister.

Najib rubbished Azilah’s claim, saying it was a “complete fabrication by a desperate person seeking to escape the gallows”.

Shafee claimed that he knew the meeting between Azilah and these individuals took place outside of the prison, and that it was a breach of protocol of prison regulations.

He said there were also “two to three” individuals who attempted to persuade fellow former police officer Sirul Azhar Umar at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney to come out with something similar as Azilah’s claim.

Sirul had fled to Australia after the Court of Appeal freed him and Azilah for murdering Altantuya in 2013. Their acquittals were overturned by the Federal Court in 2015.

“I cannot disclose who they are but they are ‘agents’ of the Malaysian government and a reporter,” Shafee alleged, adding that this was a “coordinated effort”.

“The people who are behind it are mischievous,” he said.

The Federal Court will hear Azilah’s review application on April 20 next year.

Lawyer J Kuldeep Kumar represented Azilah in the review bid.

Altantuya was murdered on October 2006 in the jungles in Puncak Alam near Shah Alam, Selangor, with a shot to the head before her body was blown up with explosives.

Abdul Razak Baginda,, who was then an aide to Najib, was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul but was acquitted without his defence being called.