Father saw photo of people Altantuya wanted to meet in Malaysia

Shaariibuu Setev said he saw a photo of his late daughter Altantuya, with the people she wanted to meet in Malaysia.

Speaking as a witness in his family's RM100 million civil suit over her death, Shaariibuu said he found the photo when Altantuya came to visit him on Oct 7 or 8, 2006.

This was shortly before she left for Malaysia.

Shaariibuu said during the visit, Altantuya had informed him that she was seeing a "big man" in Malaysia.

"All she told me was the name Razak. I didn't know which Razak, Razak Baginda or Najib Razak," he added.

He said this when asked again by lawyer Ramkarpal Singh if Altantuya had told him who she was meeting in Malaysia.

Abdul Razak Baginda is Altantuya's former lover, who was also a confidante of then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Shaariibuu said when Altantuya went to the bathroom, her phone rang prompting him to open her handbag which was in front of him.

Inside he discovered a photo.

Shaariibuu: I asked her are these the people you're going to meet in Malaysia?

Ramkarpal: What was in the photo?

Shaariibuu: I asked her in particular who they are because my daughter was in the picture. To which she answered these are the people she is going to meet in Malaysia. At that time I didn't know who was in that photo.

Previously, Altantuya's cousin Burmaa Oyunchimeg testified that she had seen many photos of the slain Mongolian with Razak Baginda in Paris.

Burmaa also claimed to have seen a photo of Altantuya, Razak Baginda, and Najib from the same Paris trip.

The defence has questioned whether the photo with Najib actually exists. Burmaa insists that it is real.

However, the photo's whereabouts are unknown.

A lookalike photo submitted as evidence by the plaintiff's lawyers had been dismissed by Burmaa as "the worst photoshop job" she had ever seen.

However, she said two men pictured in the photoshopped image, Najib and Razak Baginda, were the same men she saw in the real photo.

The RM100 million civil suit was filed by Altantuya's family in 2007, a year after her death.

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

Razak Baginda, who was accused of abetting the two former police officers in her murder, was acquitted.

The trial resumes on Monday with the continued testimony from Shaariibuu. - Mkini