Najib’s ex-bodyguard evades execution for Mongolian model’s 2006 murder
2024.10.10
Kuala Lumpur
A former bodyguard of ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak dodged the death penalty for the 2006 murder of a Mongolian model after Malaysia’s top court on Thursday allowed his sentence review application following last year’s repeal of mandatory executions.
The Federal Court reduced the convict Azilah Hadri’s sentence to 40 years in prison for shooting model Altantuya Shaariibuu and using military-grade explosives to destroy her body in a jungle near Kuala Lumpur. Najib served as defense minister at the time.
“[W]e set aside the death sentence and substituted it with imprisonment for 40 years from the date of arrest, Nov. 1, 2006, excluding the period the convict was released by the court,” Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tun Mat said in the ruling.
The judge added that Azilah would also be punished with 12 strokes from a cane.
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The convict’s lawyer read out in court a handwritten letter from Altantuya’s father, Shaariibuu Setev, requesting the removal of Azilah’s death sentence.
“My request stems from a deep respect for the humanity of Mongolians,” said the letter written in Mongolian.
Azilah could be freed in about a decade because of reductions for good behavior, his lawyer said.
Azilah and his police colleague, Sirul Azhar Umar, were found guilty in 2009 of murdering Altantuya in a case that was a sensation in Malaysia because of its alleged links to a 2002 defense scandal.
At the time of her death, Altantuya, 28, had been a translator during negotiations between the Malaysian government and French defense company DCNI for the purchase of Scorpene submarines.
Najib has denied involvement in the Altantuya killing. He is in prison for corruption in a case related to a subsidiary of the scandal-tainted sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
Previous rulings
The Court of Appeal in 2013 overturned the convictions of Azilah and Sirul, who served on Najib’s security team at the time of the killing, ruling there was insufficient motive. But the Federal Court reinstated their death sentences two years later.
Azilah filed for a review of his sentence after Malaysia’s parliament in April 2023 voted to scrap the mandatory death penalty and reduced the number of offenses punishable by hanging, saying capital punishment as a deterrent had not lowered crime.
The parliament also voted to end life sentences, reducing them to 30 to 40 years in prison.
In September 2023, the government said those who were on death row could appeal to have their sentences reviewed for reduction.
‘A secret spy’
Azilah, who was relieved by the court’s decision, has served more than 16 years in prison since his arrest, according to his lawyer, J. Kuldeep Kumar.
“He will serve the remainder of his sentence in Sungai Buloh Prison and is expected to be released in 2034,” Kuldeep told reporters.
The lawyer argued in court that Azilah, a police commando, was merely following orders from higher-ups, having been led to believe that Altantuya was a foreign agent.
“She was described as a secret spy who had obtained national secrets,” Kuldeep said.
“Azilah thought he was carrying out an operation of national security. He tried to resist but was convinced and bound by instructions – given the circumstances, he had no choice but to follow orders.”
In a sworn statement in 2019 Azilah had implicated Najib and a defense analyst in the murder, saying the two had instructed him to kill Altantuya.
The model allegedly had a romantic relationship with the analyst, Abdul Razak Baginda, who was close to Najib and was later acquitted on charges of abetting the crime.
The second convict in Altantuya ‘s killing, Azilah’s colleague Sirul, fled Malaysia to escape the death sentence and sought asylum in Australia.
He had been held in an Australian immigration center from January 2015 until his release days after a Nov. 6, 2023, ruling by an Australian court declared indefinite immigration detention illegal.
Australian law prohibits the deportation of individuals to locations where they may face the death penalty.
In November 2023, Sirul was staying in Canberra with his son, Australian media said.
When asked at the time about repatriating Sirul, Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said there was a slim chance of that happening. If Sirul were to apply for a review to reduce his death penalty to life in prison and if that application was approved, Malaysia might be able to repatriate him, the minister said.
Altantuya’s survivors, meanwhile, have pursued justice through civil litigation.
In 2022, a Malaysian court ordered Azilah, Sirul, Abdul Razak and the Malaysian government to pay 5 million ringgit (U.S. $1.16 million) in damages to her family. The ruling is under appeal.