Earlier this week, a newspaper in Hong Kong ran an expose' of the Scorpene submarines scandal implicating Prime Minister Najib Razak, his close friend Razak Baginda and murdered Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.

In the news report, which was picked up by several Malaysian blogs, Najib was portrayed as the main culprit behind the conspiracy to skim a huge commission from the Malaysian government's purchase of the 2 submarines from French arms maker DCNS.

He was also implicated in the Altantuya murder, for which two of his former bodyguards have been sentenced to hang while Baginda was controversially acquitted.

The HK newspaper also reported that the French courts had summoned Najib to testify as witness in the corruption trial filed by Malaysian NGO SUARAM against DCNS.

The 28-year-old Altantuya, believed to have been lovers with both Najib and Baginda, was portrayed as a translator who was killed for her role as a middleman in the case, in which Najib and Baginda have been accused of collecting an illegal kickback worth more than RM500 million.

She was shot in the head in a jungle clearing in Malaysia in 2006 and her body bombed with military-grade C4 explosives to prevent identification.