Need for immediate reopening of Altantuya murder investigation
Government formally implicated, must pursue justice in this case
The High Court ordered the government, Razak Baginda, and former Special Actions Unit (UTK) officers Sirul Azhar and Azilah Hadri to pay RM 5 million in damages to Altantuya Saaribuu’s family, over her brutal murder in 2006.
Back in 2006, Altantuya was abducted by Azilah and Sirul outside Razak’s house, shot in the head, and then her body blown up by military grade explosives in a jungle clearing at Puncak Alam in Selangor.
Altantuya’s family made a suit against the four defendants, claiming there was a conspiracy surrounding the murder. Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera’s judgement upheld that there was a conspiracy in Altantuya’s abduction and murder, awarding RM 5 million to her family as damages.
Razak Baginda was a former aid to then deputy prime minister Najib Razak. There is a real need to investigate who gave the order to kill Altantuya. All circumstantial facts indicate that the order was given by someone high within the deputy prime minister’s office.
In 2009, a criminal court convicted Azilah and Sirul of the murder of Altantuya in October 2006. They were sentenced to death. Razak was charged with abetting the murder, but acquitted without the need to give a defence in 2008.
In 2013, Azilah and Sirul were freed, following the court’s decision to allow an appeal. The original case had not called on former deputy prime minister Najib Razak’s former aide de camp Musa Safri and the failure to take account of the police station’s dairy, which stated that Azilah was at Bukit Aman at the time of the incident.
In 2015, on appeal, Azilah and Sirul’s convictions were upheld and Azilah, who was present in the court was taken into custody again. Sirul was not present, as he had fled to Australia, but is in detention in the Villawood Immigration detention Centre, over an expired visa issue.
Government Implicated
Justice Vazeer in his judgement said Azilah and Sirul had been proven to have ‘ruthlessly killed’ Altantuya, in an unlawful act of murder.
Razak was deemed liable because he was the link between Azilah and Sirul, who didn’t know who Altantuya was. The waited outside Razak’s house on 19 October 2006 and abducted her.
The judge said the government is liable for the unlawful acts of Azilah and Sirul, who utilized resources of the UTK unit.
This decision once again opens up the question of who within the government ordered the murder and its attempted cover-up? As the government has been deemed liable, there must be an immediate reopening of the investigation into the murder to find out who was responsible.
The writer’s own investigation into the murder found that while Sirul is in-turned at Villawood in Sydney, there are a number of lawyers and minders from Malaysia with connections to UMNO, who have been paying Sirul large quantities of money.
This in itself indicates that someone with government connections is still very much interested in keeping the link between Razak Baginda and the person who ordered the murder quiet.
Azilah Hadri revealed in a statutory declaration back in 2019 that Najib Razak had ordered him to “arrest and destroy” Altantuya. Najib has claimed, according to Azilah, that Altantuya was a foreign spy, who is a threat to ‘national security.”
Justice has still not been done in this case. This must be an early test of the transparency of the new Anwar Ibrahim government. Is Anwar willing to reopen the investigation for the sake of justice and final closure? The RM 5 million award in damages to Altantuya’s family is inadequate to compensate a life and the suffering the family has undergone in seeking justice in this case.
This pay-out is coming from taxpayers’ funds. This makes the Rakyat a stakeholder in knowing the truth and seeing justice is done.
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