The High Court has ordered the government and three other parties to pay the family of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu RM5 million in damages.
This comes 15 years after Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev, mother Altantsetseg Sanjaa, and brother Mungunshagai filed the lawsuit on June 4, 2007.
Along with the lawsuit, they also demanded RM100 million in damages and claimed that that there was a conspiracy surrounding her murder.
Ordered to pay RM5 million in damages
FMT reported that the verdict was made by Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera during an online proceeding this morning.
In his ruling, he found that Altantuya’s family had proved their claim on the balance of probabilities against the defendants, namely Razak Baginda, former policemen Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri, and the government.
During the time of Altantuya’s murder, Razak was serving as an aide to former prime minister Najib Razak while Sirul and Azilah were charged with her death.
Sirul is reportedly being detained at a detention centre in Australia, while Azilah is on death row at the Kajang Prison.
Summary of Altantuya’s murder
In October 2006, Altantuya was killed and her remains blown to bits with military-grade explosives at Mukim Bukit Raja in Klang, Selangor.
Razak was later charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul in the murder but was set free of the charges without being called to submit his defense in 2015.
As for Sirul and Azilah, both were convicted of the murder in 2009 but it was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2013.
However, the Federal Court reinstated the conviction in 2019 and sentenced them to death, with Sirul fleeing the country before the final verdict was delivered.
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