Azilah objects to Najib intervening in his review application, says lawyer

PUTRAJAYA (Bernama): Former police commando Azilah Hadri is objecting to Datuk Seri Najib Razak's application to intervene in his review application to set aside his conviction and death sentence for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

His lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar, who attended a case management before deputy registrar Azniza Mohd Ali Tuesday (March 17), said Najib's lawyers have filed an affidavit-in reply in respect to the intervener application and had then served the document to him.

"We are objecting to the affidavit-in reply as it was not filed within the time frame," he said, adding that Najib's lawyers should have instead filed an application to seek extension of time to file the affidavit-in-reply.

Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Muhammad Azmi Mashud appearing for the prosecution, who also attended the case management said his instructions were to object to Najib's intervener application and also oppose Azilah's review application.

However, Kuldeep told reporters that that he is objecting to the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) application to file its affidavit-in-reply to Azilah's review application as they did not file the document by Jan 31, this year.

Kuldeep said that the deputy registrar would write to all parties this Thursday (March 19) to give further directions.

He said the hearing date fixed on April 20 for the Federal Court to hear Azilah's review application is maintained.

Azilah, who is currently on death row at Kajang Prison, filed his review application in Dec 5, last year together with his 32-paged statutory declaration in which he claimed that the order to kill Altantuya had come from the former prime minister (Najib), who was deputy prime minister then.

Azilah, 43, is seeking to set aside his conviction and death sentence imposed by the Federal Court on Jan 13,2015 and an order for retrial.

In December, last year, lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the media that his client, Najib had denied Azilah's allegations.

Azilah and Sirul Azhar Umar, 47, were convicted and sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court in 2009 for Altantuya's murder at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am the following day in 2006.

They were however discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2013 which allowed their appeal to set aside their conviction and death sentence.

In 2015, the Federal Court overturned the acquittal of the two police commandos and restored the High Court's decision to find them guilty of the offence.

Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, 55, who was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul Azhar, was acquitted by the High Court in 2008, after the High Court held that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him. The prosecution did not appeal against his acquittal.

Lawyer Sarah Abishegam appeared for Najib while lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, who is holding a watching brief on behalf of Altantuya's family in the review application, was also present at the case management. - Bernama