Based on a report by Malaysiakini, revisiting 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 to the then deputy prime minister.
Najib Abdul Razak’s close associate Abdul Razak Baginda was charged with abetting the murder of the Mongolian national and later acquitted while Najib went to the extent of swearing in God’s name 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 a probe by the French authorities.
The political analyst had admitted having an affair with Altantuya, but Abdul Razak's defence was not called after the prosecution completed its case at the Shah Alam High Court in 2008, on the grounds of his 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 happened 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 sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court in April 2009.
Misdirections found
However, the Court of Appeal found several misdirections by the 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, the latter’s alibi as written in a police station diary which 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 at the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court, Sirul, the second accused, had stated that he was made a scapegoat in order “to protect their plans”.
His lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin said his client was being framed, following evidence being 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. The trial is still pending the outcome of the prosecution's appeal.
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 Kuala Lumpur High Court last month without it being brought to a full trial.
Against this backdrop with many twists and turns, the fate of Azilah and Sirul would be decided by the highest court in the country tomorrow.
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