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<cite>By Agence France-Presse, </cite>Updated: 8/3/2010
Former Malaysian lawmaker in apparent murder-suicide
Abdul Aziz Mohamad Noh (above), a one-time state legislator with the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, and his 43-year-old female aide were found dead in a car on a highway. -- PHOTO: THE STAR
A former Malaysian lawmaker and his female aide were shot dead Tuesday, according to police who said it was likely a murder-suicide and ruled out any political motive.
Abdul Aziz Mohamad Noh, 64, a one-time state legislator with the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, and his 43-year-old female aide were found dead in a car on a highway, state police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said.
"We believe it was a case of murder-suicide," Khalid told AFP. "The shots were fired from inside the car. We have witnesses that they were the only two in the car at the time," he said, adding that a pistol belonging to Abdul Aziz was found in the vehicle.
The car, which had been in motion, then went out of control and crashed into a highway divider. "At the moment we rule out that there was any political motive involved," Khalid said. He declined to speculate on the relationship between the pair.
Abdul Aziz, a member of the ruling party United Malays National Organisation, was a state representative until 2008 in Selangor state which surrounds Kuala Lumpur.
Politically linked murders are extremely rare in Malaysia. In 2008, an ethnic Indian ruling state lawmaker from the Malaysian Indian Congress party was gunned down by unidentified assailants in the southern state of Johor.
In another case in 2000, a motorcycle rider shot dead another state lawmaker from the same party when he stopped at traffic lights.