Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh represents Shaariibuu Setev, father of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 12, 2015.
A judgment without contest will be taken against former police commandos Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar if they fail to respond to the RM100 million suit filed by Altantuya Shaariibuu's father, said lawyer Ramkarpal Singh.
The lawyer, who represents Shaariibuu Setev, said the two who were convicted and sentenced to death by the Federal Court last month for the murder of the Mongolian model in 2006 had not filed their defence.
"We will apply and obtain default judgment if they fail to enter their defence," he told The Malaysian Insider after case management for the suit at the Shah Alam High Court today.
Deputy Registrar Norhayati Johar has fixed the next proceeding on March 13 for Ramkarpal to obtain notes of evidence of the criminal case from the Federal Court.
A default judgment is a binding judgment in favour of either party based on a failure to take action by the other party.
Most often, it is a judgment in favour of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law.
Setev filed the suit against Abdul Razak Baginda, Azilah, Sirul and Putrajaya in June 2007, seeking damages for "suffering, sorrow, as well as physical and mental anguish".
The suit was put on the back burner because the High Court wanted the criminal trial to be concluded first.
Razak, a close ally of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was initially charged with abetting in the murder but was later acquitted without his defence being called.
Setev filed the suit on behalf of his wife Altantsetseg Sanjaa and their two grandsons, Mungunsha Bayarjargal and Altanshagai Munkhtulga, who are minors.
The couple are guardians of Altantuya's children. The younger child suffers from a medical disorder which requires expensive treatment.
The government filed its defence saying that it could not be held vicariously liable because the two former policemen had acted on their own. Razak, meanwhile, held the position that although he had known the victim, he denied any knowledge of the murder.
In case management today, Senior Federal Counsel Norainna (crt) Bahdan represented the government and lawyer Avtharan Singh appeared for Razak while Azilah and Sirul were unrepresented.
In the criminal case, lawyers Datuk Hazman Ahmad and Datuk Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin appeared for Azilah and Sirul respectively.
In the Federal Court, only Azilah was present while Sirul was absent but it was later reported that he had left for Australia last October.
Sirul, a one-time bodyguard of former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was arrested in Queensland on January 20 and is being held at Sydney’s Villawood immigration centre following a red alert issued by Interpol.
A five-man federal court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria on January 13 sentenced the two cops to death after allowing the government's appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit them.
Federal Court judge Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar, who delivered the judgment, said the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Suriyadi said there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence linking the two to the crime.
Evidence in court revealed that the Mongolian translator was either murdered by C4 explosives or was killed first and the remains destroyed on October 18, 2006, in the outskirts of Shah Alam, near the capital city Kuala Lumpur.
On August 23, 2013, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals brought by Azilah and Sirul and acquitted them.
Four years earlier, High Court judge Datuk Zaki Mohd Yassin found the two guilty and sentenced them to death.
- TMI
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