Why Not The Pakatan Government Just Pay Altantuya’s Family RM100 Million?

To demonstrate that they really believe the former Prime Minister, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister, is really guilty of Altantuya’s murder, the Pakatan Harapan government should just settle this case out of court tomorrow and pay the RM100 million.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Shaariibuu Setev (left) and his lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo 

Twelve years ago, on 4th June 2007, Altantuya Shaariibuu’s parents and two sons filed a RM100 million civil suit to claim compensation for the mental shock and psychological trauma they suffered over Altantuya’s death. The four respondents named in the lawsuit are Sirul Azhar Umar, Azilah Hadri, Abdul Razak Baginda, and the Government of Malaysia (GoM). The hearing begins tomorrow.

In June 2007, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was the Prime Minister and, in April 2009, Najib Tun Razak took over. Today, Pakatan Harapan is the government while Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the Prime Minister. So many things have changed since June 2007.

Altantuya at her 23rd birthday party in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, photo courtesy of Shaariibuu Setev

For the last 12 or 13 years, Pakatan Harapan has been insisting that Najib, Razak Baginda, Sirul and Azilah (plus some others not named in that lawsuit) are guilty of Altantuya’s murder. They have been repeating this same mantra since 2006. And the Government of Malaysia is one of the parties being sued.

To demonstrate that they really believe the former Prime Minister, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister, is really guilty of Altantuya’s murder, the Pakatan Harapan government should just settle this case out of court tomorrow and pay the RM100 million.

Sirul and Azilah, Prime Minister Badawi’s bodyguards, were convicted for Altantuya’s murder

On the one hand, they claim Najib and many others are guilty of Altantuya’s murder. On the other hand, they are contesting the RM100 million suit and are claiming innocence. The best way to ‘nail’ Najib, which is what they actually want to do, is to admit guilt and pay the RM100 million. Then they can claim Najib is, after all, guilty of Altantuya’s murder (which is why they paid the RM100 million) and then use this ‘confession’ in the Cameron Highlands by-election.