Altantuya murder suit: Family appeals for higher compensation

 

The family of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu is appealing for a higher compensation than the RM5 million awarded by the High Court in Shah Alam.

The family’s counsel, Sangeet Kaur Deo, confirmed with Malaysiakini that the family members had filed the appeal to the Court of Appeal back in January.

She added that the appeal - linked to the civil action over Altantuya's gruesome 2006 murder - is set for case management before the appellate court registry today.

On Dec 16 last year, the High Court ordered the federal government and three others to pay RM5 million to the family of Altantuya.

The other three defendants are political analyst Razak Baginda as well as former Special Actions Unit commandos Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar.

Sangeet Kaur Deo

However, the government and Razak have since appealed to the Court of Appeal to quash the verdict.

Civil judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera’s verdict in favour of the family came 15 years after the civil action was filed in 2007.

The three plaintiffs - Shariibuu Setev (above) and Altantseseg Sanjaa, who are the deceased’s father and mother, as well as Altantuya’s brother Mungunshagai Bayarjargal - were suing for RM100 million.

Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 and her remains were blown up with military-grade explosives. A separate criminal court convicted Azilah and Sirul of the murder and sentenced them to death in April 2009.

However, the criminal court acquitted Razak of abetting the murder without his defence being called in October 2008.

Azilah is currently in jail on death row in a Malaysian prison.

Sirul, however, fled to Australia prior to the Malaysian apex court upholding the duo's conviction and death sentence in 2015.

The Federal Court reversed an earlier Court of Appeal decision that quashed the guilty verdict of the two men. Sirul flew to Australia after the Court of Appeal ruling while the prosecution was appealing to the apex court.

Sirul is currently under the custody of the Australian authorities, who have a policy of not deporting anybody facing the death penalty in the country of origin.

For the civil action, the government was represented by the Attorney-General’s Chambers while Razak was represented by counsel Manjeet Singh Dhillon. Azilah and Sirul were not represented. - Mkini