Hearing of Najib’s bid to intervene in Altantuya matter postponed

 

The Federal Court has postponed this Wednesday’s hearing of Najib Abdul Razak’s bid to intervene in the review application of the conviction and death sentence of former police Special Action Unit (UTK) member Azilah Hadri over the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

The former prime minister’s lead counsel Muhammad Shafee Abdullah confirmed this with Malaysiakini this morning.

“It (Wednesday’s hearing) has been taken off this week due to the PKPB,” Shafee said.

PKPB is the Bahasa Malaysia acronym for the conditional movement control order, CMCO, which came into effect in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya last week.

On July 17, it was reported that the Federal Court fixed today for the hearing of the application by Najib to intervene in Azilah’s review bid against his conviction and death sentence in the murder of Altantuya.

However, on Oct 13, it was reported that due to the imposition of the conditional MCO, court hearings in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya for the period from Oct 14 to 27 have been postponed.

Azilah Hadri

On Dec 5 last year, Azilah, who is on death row at the Kajang Prison, filed his review application.

Malaysiakini reported that his 32-page statutory declaration in support of the review bid put forth the allegation that the order to kill Altantuya had originated from Najib, who was the then deputy prime minister.

Malaysiakini also reported Najib rubbishing the allegation, questioning why this information had surfaced more than 10 years after the Mongolian national's murder in 2006, among others.

Azilah, 43, seeks to set aside his conviction and death sentence imposed by the Federal Court on Jan 13, 2015, and is also seeking a retrial of the case.

Azilah and Sirul Azhar Umar, 47, were found guilty and both were handed the death penalty by the High Court in Shah Alam in 2009 for the murder of Altantuya at Mukim Bukit Raja, Shah Alam, between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am the following day in 2006.

However, on appeal, the duo was discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2013.

Then, in 2015, the Federal Court overturned the acquittal of the two former UTK members and reinstated the High Court verdict. - Mkini