Altantuya's father files bid to use Federal Court verdict in civil suit

Lawyers for Mongolian national Setev Shaariibuu have filed an application for the Federal Court criminal verdict regarding his daughter Altantuya Shaariibuu's murder to be used in his family's RM100 million civil suit over her death.

Lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo told this to Malaysiakini when contacted today.

She said this legal issue will have to be decided by Shah Alam High Court judge Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera, before the start of the civil suit trial.

"The main legal issue is whether the findings of the criminal court and the conviction can be relied on in civil proceedings, or whether the family, as the plaintiff, have to prove the murder all over again in the civil trial.

"The Attorney-General’s Chambers agrees to the findings of the criminal court in relation to the murder case and the conviction of Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar but not on (political analyst) Abdul Razak Baginda," she said.

For this reason, Sangeet said, the August trial dates which had been set earlier have been vacated.

Initially, Justice Vazeer had in June fixed the trial to be heard for seven days beginning Aug 13.

Sangeet said the hearing of the new bid under Order 14A of the Rules of Court 2012 has been fixed for Aug 28.

Order 14A concerns the determination of questions of law or construction, which, in this case, is about whether criminal findings can be used for civil proceedings.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had agreed for Altantuya's murder case to be re-opened after meeting Setev on June 20.

Setev and his family filed the suit in 2007, naming Azilah, Sirul, Razak and the government as defendants following Altantuya's death.

Azilah and Sirul were found guilty of Altantuya's murder by the Federal Court in January 2015 and sentenced to death.

However, Sirul made his way to Australia and is being detained by the immigration authorities there.

Abdul Razak, who was accused of abetting the two former police officers in Altantuya’s murder, was acquitted. - Mkini