Ramkarpal: New leads discovered in Altantuya murder case

There are new leads pertaining to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, lawyer Ramkarpal Singh says.

"We have new leads, I mean there are avenues, evidence to be taken into consideration to further investigations," Ramkarpal said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Ramkarpal declined to divulge further on what kind of leads he had, but said they were both fresh and old leads.

He said this after a meeting with attorney-general Tommy Thomas and Altantuya's father Setev Shaariibuu.

During the meeting, the matter of re-opening investigations, or setting up a royal commission of inquiry as an alternative was broached, and Ramkarpal said Thomas was very receptive in hearing their views.

Asked what grounds a new probe would be on, the lawyer said this would be on the motive of the murder, which was never established in court.

"We are optimistic that the issue of motive, and only motive as to who ordered the murder will proceed and will be investigated further, so that those responsible for the same will be brought to justice," he said.

Altantuya, 28, was shot dead and her body blown up with military-grade plastic explosives outside Kuala Lumpur in October 2006.

Former police commandos Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar were convicted of her murder in 2009 and sentenced to hang. They were later released when an appeals court overturned the conviction in 2013 ruling the High Court judge had erred.

The Federal Court, however, upheld their death sentences in 2015. Sirul fled Australia ahead of that ruling while Azhar is currently on death row.

Setev and Ramkarpal will meet with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad tomorrow to further discuss the case. -Mkini