PUTRAJAYA (Oct 8): Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri will know on Thursday (Oct 10) if the Federal Court would allow his review over the death sentence being passed on him for murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu to be remitted to a prison sentence of 30 to 40 years.
The apex court has fixed Thursday (Oct 10) as the hearing of his review application, where Azilah stands among the final batch of death row prisoners who are trying to have their death sentence commuted to lifetime imprisonment, which now means 30 to 40 years in jail.
This follows the Parliament’s passing of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846) that now gives courts the discretion to impose an imprisonment of 30 to 40 years and not less than 12 strokes of whipping in place of the compulsory death sentence.
The review of prisoners who are on death row began last November, where it was reported that some 800 inmates who had finished the judicial process can apply for a review that ends on Thursday.
Azilah was convicted with Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of murdering Altantuya in the early morning of Oct 19, 2006, on top of a forest hill in Puncak Alam, Selangor.
The two were initially found guilty of murdering Altantuya, while political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted by Shah Alam High Court judge Datuk Mohd Zaki Yasin.
However, the duo were then unanimously acquitted by a three-member Court of Appeal bench led by Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, where present Chief Justice (CJ) Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat wrote the judgment in freeing them on Aug 23, 2013.
In a turn of events, a five-member bench led by then CJ Tun Arifin Zakaria unanimously reversed the appellate court decision on Jan 13, 2015, resulting in Azilah facing the death sentence while Sirul had left the country for Australia, where he had been detained under Australian immigration law until his release late last year there.
This follows Australia’s ban on the death penalty and the deportation of people facing the death sentence.
Azilah is expected to be represented by his lawyer J Kuldeep Kumar on Thursday, while Sangeet Kaur Deo is expected to hold a watching brief for Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev.
In addition to this review, Azilah had also applied for pardon before the Selangor Sultan, which The Edge understands is still pending.
Besides this, Shaariibuu had on Dec 16, 2022, won a suit filed against Azilah, Sirul and Abdul Razak as well as the government, where the Shah Alam High Court ruled they were liable for the death of the Mongolian and awarded total damages of RM5 million.
However, the matter is still pending appeal by Razak and the government, and the sum of damages could go up to RM9.261 million as Shaariibuu wants to enforce judgment debtor on Abdul Razak as reported last month.
A case management to the Shaariibuu judgment debtor case was done yesterday (Oct 7) before deputy registrar Mohamad Suffian Jaafar and another case management date has been fixed for Nov 15.
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