The appeal court overturned the decision of the lower court to convict Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar for the murder of Mongolian working girl Altantunya Shaaribuu seven years ago.
As we understood it, they had admitted to the police of their murderous act and showed the investigating officer the site they blasted the victim's body to smithereens with a C4 explosive.
When it involves the court and a capital crime like murder, any conviction will have to be beyond reasonable doubts.It's got nothing to do with the proof but acceptable and presentable facts and evidences.
It only means there must be no shred of doubts in the case fact and evidences. But, since this is a politically explosive case, they will be rumour mongers creating political doubt on someone.
Read the AFP news below:
Malaysia court overturns police murder convictionsOne legal weakness with the conviction against Azilah and Sirul has been the motive of murder. In a case like this, there has to be a complete set of information on the case to be legally acceptable. The criminal act or charge must be clearly stated together with the date and place.
Published August 23, 2013 / AFP
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A Malaysian court Friday overturned a 2009 murder conviction for two police officers in a scandal that fascinated the nation and saw critics try to draw a link to Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar were convicted of the 2006 killing of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old model and interpreter at the centre of allegations of huge kickbacks in a government purchase of French submarines.
"Both the accused have been acquitted and discharged. They are free men now," defence lawyer Hazman Ahmad told AFP.
"Based on the evidence, justice has been done."
Prosecutors said the government would appeal the decision.
Government critics have long alleged that the two men, members of an elite police unit that guards top ministers, were the fall guys in the killing to hide the involvement of their masters at the highest levels of government.
The case stems from charges that Abdul Razak Baginda, a former close associate of Najib, arranged the kickbacks in the $1.1-billion purchase of French Scorpene submarines in 2002.Najib was defence minister at the time.
Altantuya, who was then Abdul Razak's lover, had reportedly been involved in negotiations over the purchase.
Abdul Razak was later charged with abetting her murder by ordering the two officers to kill her after she allegedly harassed him for a cut of the kickbacks.
Abdul Razak, who is no relation to the prime minister, was acquitted in 2008.
The remains of Altantuya's body were found blown up with military-grade explosives in a jungle clearing near the capital Kuala Lumpur.
Najib has vehemently denied any involvement in the affair, but the corruption allegations have never been fully probed and whispers over the case have continued to dog him.
It was not immediately clear whether the men would be publicly available to comment in the extremely sensitive matter.
The decision triggered an immediate reaction on Malaysian social media, with many calling it part of a widely suspected conspiracy to free the men in return for their silence.
Sirul Azhar has been previously quoted telling a court that he was being "sacrificed" to protect others. But the men are not known to have implicated anyone else.
Then, there must be a motive.
Good thing we had other things more important to write than write about the murder. After all, being a court process, let's just leave it to the courts. It is common for courts to make decisions for conviction, or acquital or conviction overturned in courts.
And it is not uncommon for guilty ones to get away scot-free from conviction on technical grounds like Anwar and his weird sexual preference to sodomise pretty young boys. This despite Karpal Singh inferred acknowledging that act is a case of suka sama suka.
Before the appeal, NST reported the leagl team for Sirul and Azilah mentioned 10 grounds for their acquital:
25 June 2013| last updated at 12:34AM
Lawyers cite 10 grounds for acquittal of Sirul and Azilah
PUTRAJAYA: Two former policemen, who were convicted of murdering a Mongolian woman, have called on the Court of Appeal to set aside their conviction on grounds that the trial judge had erred in fact and law.
At the outset of yesterday's proceedings, lawyers for former special action unit personnel Sirul Azhar Omar and ex-chief inspector Azilah Hadri attacked High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Mohd Yassin's judgment as they outlined 10 grounds to secure the freedom of their clients.
Lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar submitted before a three-man bench headed by Datuk Seri Mohamad Apandi Ali that the mobile phone call log details of Azilah stated that his client was in Pekan Subang at 10.15pm on Oct 19, 2006. However, he said there was also an entry in a police station diary that Azilah was in Bukit Aman during the same period.
"Our argument is that we have raised a reasonable doubt in the prosecution's case."
Kuldeep said the trial judge did not direct his mind on the issue of alibi in considering whether Azilah was at the crime scene.
Another lawyer Datuk Azman Ahmad, who is also representing Azif, said his client did not offer information to the police which led investigators to the crime scene.
He said usually a suspect would lead police to the crime scene or to discover incriminating evidence.
Azman said Azilah was also not cautioned before he was taken to the crime scene.
The lawyer said Azilah could not have been in possession of C4 explosives as such explosives were not under the police inventory list. Evidence during trial revealed that the victim was shot and her body was disposed of with C4 explosives.
Sirul's lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin said there was suppression of evidence when the prosecution failed to call DSP Musa Safri to testify with regard to an affidavit affirmed by political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, the third accused who was acquitted of abetting Azilah and Sirul without his defence being called.
Azilah and Sirul were found guilty in 2009 of murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10pm on Oct 19, 2006, and 1am on Oct 20, 2006.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Tun Majid Tun Hamzah will submit today.
In a matter of minutes after the overturn decision, the opposition and pro-opposition bloggers have started their rumour mill.
Will they resurrect their old debunked and nonsensical accusation that the Prime Minister's wife is involved despite her being in a buka puasa function with orphans at the Tabung Haji building, and two alleged witness of the her shooting Altantunya made a statutory declaration to deny?
During the election, opposition dare not take the risk of a back-fire to make Rosmah an issue.
Then, will they come up with a new version of Najib's involvement to cover-up the based on an allegation that he was in co-hort with Abdul Razak Baginda in Scorpene?
Don't comment on anything to do with Scorpene in the story till you've read our series debunking the Scorpene scandal. Read about Jasbir Singh statement here.
He said Najib did not know Altantunya.
Najib had repeatedly swear in the name of Allah that he does not know Altantunya. Mind the fact that Anwar dare not swear to deny he is the f*ck*r screwing the Chinese prostitute in the video made famous by Papagomo.
In the first place, why would all of them be involved and be stupid enough to murder Altantunya themselves?
Any bad person with power, money and influence will get a go-between to deal with hired guns to do any murdering without any traces of evidence unlike what happened in the case of Altantunya.
The questions the rumour mongers will try to do is to guess who really killed Altantunya and who made things up till everyone supposedly involved got away scot-free?
One will expect them to blame the Judge or Attorney General or Police for disallowing Musa Safri to be witness, or Azilah and Sirul to be on the stand, or Abdul Razak Baginda's acquital or Karpal Singh can't get a hard-on anymore.
The defense lawyers could be accused of cooperating in this conspiracy. Everyone including the Indon cleaning the toilets at the court could be accused for something or another.
No effort be spared to resurrect the body of Private Investigator Balasubramaniam and with the help of Gobind Singh and Malek Imtiaz to get the help of spectacular but weird Dr Pornthip from Thailand to talk to the dead.
Only thing the public should request before going back to another merry-go-round of who killed or cover-up is not to be like Rafizi Ramli to make slanderous accusations, then stupidly ask the reporters to investigate.
If anyone must make any accusation on murder, they should have their information complete and together with the story including motive, then make a police report and if only necessary, talk in public. By talking in public, it will mean they are not sincere to get the real guilty person behind bar but allow them to get away by spoiling the investigation by police.
Without complete information, one's reputation will slide like Rafizi and only idiot diehard refuse to acknowledge he will lose credibility and a matter of time, end his political career before it could get even get started for making too many out of court settlements like the one with Dato Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Nurul and Tony Pua, watch out too!
-Another Brick in the Wall
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