Altantuya case can be reopened, says Ramkarpal

Ramkarpal Singh. -Bernamapic

PETALING JAYA: DAP lawmaker Ramkarpal Singh finds it “unacceptable” that the police have not reopened the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case due to the lack of new police reports lodged on the matter.

The Bukit Gelugor MP was responding to the statements made by Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun to the press on Friday (May 25) where the Inspector-General of Police said that the police have not found any grounds to reopen investigations.

“There is no need for a new police report to be lodged as it is very likely that the person or persons who ordered the murder of Altantuya are already known to the police from the earlier investigations into the murder as this is too crucial an aspect to have been missed out in the said investigations,” said Ramkarpal.

He added that it “defies logic” for investigators to have only asked about who killed the Mongolian model without asking why in their investigations.

“The matter of lodging a police report in such circumstances is a mere formality and the police themselves can do so to reopen investigations if Fuzi feels this is necessary."

He also noted the appeal of Mongolia's President Khaltmaagiin Battulga to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the investigations to be reopened in his recent congratulatory address to the latter.

Altantuya's father Setev Shaariibuu had also requested Ramkarpal to convey to Malaysians how the murder of his daughter had devastated him and his family.

According to Setev, his family life is ruined, with two kids being deprived of the “right to call their ‘mother".

“My daughter’s eldest son started to carry goods in the market when he was 11 in order to earn money for medicines for his brother. Altantuya's mother got psychologically disturbed and there is one more person in my family that needs someone else’s care,” he said in the letter to Ramkarpal.

Despite being of retirement age, Setev also juggles three jobs to provide for his family, saying it is a difficult life where he is just trying to survive.

“I don’t think that with destroying of my daughter in 2006, everything will be finished, it has had the opposite effect and will be remembered for many years.

“How to punish the culprits is a matter of law. I have been waiting for 12 years to hear the word ‘sorry’ from the criminals and the Government of Malaysia,” he added.

Altantuya, 28, is believed to have been shot dead before her body was blown to bits with explosives at a secondary forest near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam in 2006.

In 2009, Sirul Azhar Umar and accomplice Azilah Hadri were convicted of murdering Altantuya and were sentenced to death.

The Court of Appeal overturned their sentences in 2013 but upon the prosecution's appeal, they were upheld by the Federal Court.

Sirul fled to Australia where he was detained by the Australian Immigration after Interpol issued a red notice on him.

He has been at the detention centre since 2015, where he is hoping to get asylum.