PUTRAJAYA: Former police commando Azilah Hadri has been given a new lease on life after the Federal Court allowed a review application of his death sentence and commuted it to imprisonment.
A three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat substituted the death sentence with 40 years in jail, effective from his date of arrest, and 12 strokes of the rotan.
Azilah was convicted in 2009 for the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu in October 2006.
In the unanimous decision, Tengku Maimun said there were strong mitigating factors and valid reasons for the court to exercise its discretion in favour of the applicant.
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She said the applicant had also provided affidavits that allowed the court to apply the proportionality principle in the sentencing, and this affidavit included a letter from Altantuya's father Dr Shaariibuu Setev, who supported Azilah's application to have his death sentence commuted to prison time.
"We set aside the death sentence and substitute it with imprisonment for 40 years from the date of arrest on Nov 1, 2006, excluding the period where the applicant was released by the Court of Appeal, and 12 strokes (of the rotan)," she said.
Other judges on the bench were Court of Appeal president Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Justice Nordin Hassan.
Earlier, the panel heard from parties on the mitigating and aggravating factors in the application.
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Azilah's lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar told the court that his client was a good police officer who carried out the murder under "instructions" on the belief that he was doing a "covert operation" for national security.
Kuldeep Kumar said Azilah had thought Altantuya was a secret spy who got hold of national secrets.
"That was the motive, the basis that he carried out (the murder). These officers are indoctrinated, they cannot ingkar perintah (disobey)," he said.
CJ Tengku Maimun: So you are saying, due to the circumstances of the case, he ought not to be sentenced to death? That he was under the impression that he was under a covert operation?
Kuldeep Kumar: Yes.
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The lawyer also pointed out that despite the murder being a two-man job, Azilah was the only one who would be put to death as his co-accused Kpl Sirul Azhar Umar was "walking around a free man in Australia".
"Sirul will never face justice," Kuldeep Kumar said.
Meanwhile, DPP Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar said Azilah had committed a gruesome crime when the victim was shot and blown to pieces.
"A human life was taken brutally and shocked the conscience of the community.
"It has attracted the world's attention because the victim was a foreigner," he said.
On the issue that Azilah was merely carrying out an order, DPP Mohd Dusuki said Azilah should have taken the time to question the so-called task given and take action in accordance with the law.
In the widely publicised case, Altantuya was abducted and murdered by gunshot in Shah Alam.
Her body was then blown up with explosives, said to be C4.
Azilah and Sirul were convicted by the Shah Alam High Court in 2009.
The conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
Both men walked free for more than a year until the prosecution appealed the decision.
During the said time, Sirul had gone to Australia.
In 2015, the Federal Court upheld the High Court’s decision and reinstated the death penalty on both men.
Sirul was later apprehended by Australian Immigration in January 2015 for overstaying, while Azilah had been in jail as a death row inmate since.
Azilah's application for a review of his sentence came about following the establishment of the Mandatory Death Penalty Abolition Act 2023, which came into effect on July 4.
