Mongolian president wants to see justice in Altantuya’s case

PETALING JAYA: Mongolian Pre­sident Khaltmaagiin Battulga has asked Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to help bring justice in the case of Altantuya Shariibuu who was murdered in 2006.

“As the President of Mongolia, I pay special attention to the grave crime committed in Malaysia on Oct 18, 2006 – the murder of Ms Shariibuu Altantuya, a Mongolian national and a mother of two children,” Battulga said in a letter to Dr Mahathir on Wednesday.

He urged Dr Mahathir to help bring justice to Altantuya’s family “to invigorate the atmosphere in the bilateral relations between our two countries”.

The letter was reproduced on the official website of the president’s office.

Altantuya, 28, was shot dead and her body blown up with military-­grade plastic explosives outside Kuala Lumpur.

Two former policemen, Sirul Azhar Umar and accomplice Azilah Hadri, were convicted of murdering her in 2009 and sentenced to death, although the Court of Appeal overturned this in 2013.

On the prosecution’s appeal, the Federal Court upheld their death sentences but by then Sirul had fled to Australia.

Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who was charged together with them, was freed on Oct 31, 2008, after the court found no concrete evidence against him.

On Thursday, PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had suggested for Sirul to be brought back to Malaysia for a fresh trial.

Senior lawyer Kitson Foong said the Federal Constitution does not allow the retrial of Sirul as he has already been convicted of Altan­tuya’s case but that he could be brought back to Malaysia as a witness.

“The sacrosanct principle of double jeopardy bars second prosecutions after either acquittal or conviction, and prohibits multiple pu­nishments for the same offence,” said Foong.