Altantuya murder: D-Day for Azilah and Sirul

 

Come tomorrow, the Federal Court will reveal its verdict on the final appeal related to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Malaysiakini revisits the case, which made domestic and international news, and saw two police personnel being sentenced to death without the motive being established.

Rewind to 2006

A beautiful woman was blown up with explosives in the middle of a jungle, and the blood trail led to the doorsteps of some powerful personalities, including the then deputy prime minister.

Najib Abdul Razak’s close associate Abdul Razak Baginda (left) was charged with abetting the murder of the Mongolian national, but he was later acquitted without his defence being called, while Najib went to the extent of swearing, in the name of God, that he had no links to the matter.

It was a case that spawned numerous conspiracy theories, which even linked the brutal murder to the procurement of two French submarines when Najib was defence minister.

Abdul Razak was the owner of Perimekar Sdn Bhd, the company entrusted by the government to purchase and maintain the two submarines. The purchase and alleged kickbacks from the deal are still subjects of an investigation by the French authorities.

The political analyst had admitted having an affair with Altantuya, but his defence was not called after the prosecution completed its case in the High Court in  Shah Alam in 2008, on the grounds of Abdul Razak's sworn affidavit filed during his bail proceedings being accepted by the court.

The prosecution raised eyebrows when it decided not to file an appeal over Abdul Razak's acquittal after the 14 days given to file a notice had elapsed.

The police also cleared Najib of any wrongdoing.

Two police special operations officers were convicted of the murder that took place between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am on Oct 20, 2006, at a secluded forest in Puncak Alam, near Shah Alam.

Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar were, in April 2009, sentenced to death by the High Court inShah Alam for the murder of Altantuya.

Misdirections found

However, the Court of Appeal found several misdirections by trial judge Mohd Zaki Yasin and ordered the two to be released from prison in August 2013.

The misdirections included the non-calling of Najib's aide de camp, DSP Musa Safri, the questions pertaining to the phone data of Azilah's handphone and the Musa’s alibi, as written in a police station diary that stated he was in Bukit Aman during the incident.

Furthermore, there was inconsistency in the testimony of the police witnesses and to add further mystery was that the blood found on an unidentified shoe inside Sirul's car was not confirmed as coming from the deceased.

Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail had, in his reply to the appellate court judgment, said DSP Musa was irrelevant to the prosecution's case against the two police officers.

Then came a stunning claim. During the proceedings in the High Court, in the Court of Appeal and in the Federal Court, Sirul, the second accused, stated that he was made a scapegoat in order “to protect their plans”.

His lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin said his client was being framed, that evidence was allegedly planted by the police in Sirul's house and car.

Sirul's car and house keys were in the possession of the police when he was accompanying then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to Pakistan, where he was eventually arrested.

Karpal promised to call Najib and Musa

Despite the findings of the Court of Appeal, Altantuya's father Shaariibuu Setev's lawyer, the late Karpal Singh, had promised to call Najib and DSP Musa to answer.

This was after Shaariibuu had filed a RM100 million suit against the government following the death of his daughter. This case is still pending, till the outcome of the prosecution's appeal against the acquittal of the two police officers.

Besides this, the past two years had also seen Abdul Razak's former private investigator P Balasubramaniam's widow A Santamil Selvi filing a RM1.9 million suit against Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and seven others, after the (late investigator) and his family had to live in exile in India following revelations made in an explosive statutory declaration (SD).

The suit also saw senior lawyer Cecil Abraham named as one of the defendants, where the partner in the Zul Rafique and Partner law firm is being subjected to disciplinary proceedings before the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board over his alleged involvement in drafting the second SD, which retracted the claims made in the first SD.

However, Santamil's suit was struck off by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur last month, without it being brought to a full trial.

Against this backdrop of many twists and turns, the fate of Azilah and Sirul is to be revealed by the highest court in the country tomorrow.