Azilah opposing Najib’s bid to intervene in plea for review of Altantuya case — lawyer

PUTRAJAYA: Former police officer Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, convicted of murdering Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu with another police personnel, has indicated that both of them are opposing former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application to intervene in Azilah’s plea for a review of the conviction and sentence in the Federal Court.

Azilah’s lawyer, J Kuldeep Kumar, who appeared with lawyer Athari Bahardin, told reporters this after case management yesterday with Federal Court deputy registrar Azniza Mohd Ali.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Muhammad Azmi Mashud appeared for the prosecution.

Kuldeep also confirmed that the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had indicated that they are opposing the review and intend to file their affidavit-in-reply.

However, according to the lawyer, Azniza will give further directions on these issues by tomorrow.

“This follows the AG’s objection to Azilah’s review and our objection to Najib’s application and their affidavit-in-reply that was filed late after being given an extension twice until Feb 17, 2020. We only received the reply from Najib handed to us today.

“Furthermore, we are objecting to the AG’s application to reply to our affidavit by the end of this month as they had failed to seek an extension. They were supposed to file it by Jan 31 and did not seek an extension. For these reasons, Azniza is giving her directions on this by Thursday,” Kuldeep added.

The lawyer said the hearing fixed for April 20 is still maintained.

Kuldeep’s assertion that the AGC’s direction to oppose the review was confirmed by counsel Sangeet Kaur Deo who held a watching brief for Altantuya’s family.

The Mongolian was blown up by Azilah and one Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar at a forest in Puncak Alam between 10pm on Oct 18 and 1am on Oct 19, 2006. Initially, the duo was charged along with political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

However, Abdul Razak was acquitted without his defence called in the High Court, while the duo were convicted.

Azilah and Sirul appealed to the Court of Appeal where they were unanimously acquitted of the offence.

However, on the prosecution’s appeal to the Federal Court, the apex court in January 2015 upheld the High Court’s decision to convict them of the murder and sentenced them to death.

Last Dec 5, it was reported that Azilah, who is now on death row at Kajang prison, had filed an application to review under Rule 137 of the Rules of the Federal Court 1995, with an order for a retrial.

Azilah had affirmed a statutory declaration, claiming the order to kill the Mongolian came from Najib.

As a result, Najib on Dec 17 instructed his lawyers to intervene in Azilah’s review. The former premier and Pekan member of parliament had also supposedly made a religious oath at the Kampung Baru mosque denying any involvement in the murder.

The police had reinvestigated the matter and took statements from Najib and handed the papers to the AGC.