PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has issued a warrant of arrest for former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, 43, who was convicted and sentenced to death yesterday for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006.
The court granted Deputy Solicitor-General (II) Datuk Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah’s application when the former corporal failed to turn up for the Federal Court judgment on the appeal against his acquittal by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
Sirul’s lawyer Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin told reporters outside the court that there was a possibility that Sirul had not received the summons to attend and he had not been in contact since a week after the last Federal Court hearing in June last year.
Also sentenced to death with Sirul is former chief inspector Azilah Hadri, 38, who was acquitted in 2013 but was present in court yesterday.
With the responsibility for the murder pinned on the two former officers, Altantuya’s family said it would now proceed with its RM100mil civil suit against the Government over her death.
Ramkarpal Singh, who is acting for her family, said he would contact the Shah Alam High Court to “restart the case”.
Earlier, Federal Court judge Justice Suriyadi Halim Omar read an eight-page summary of the judgment saying: “We are absolutely satisfied – by alluding to the circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution – of only one inescapable conclusion: the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt.”
He then sentenced the two former police commandos to death, which is the mandatory punishment for murder.
In contrast to the stoic expression on Azilah’s face, a few in the gallery cried.
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