PUTRAJAYA, Dec 8 ― The Federal Court today dismissed former police commando Azilah Hadri’s application for a retrial and review of his 2015 conviction over Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu’s 2006 murder, saying his own suppression of alleged instructions to carry out the murder did not lead to an exceptional situation warranting a review.
In delivering the five-man panel’s unanimous decision, Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed said Azilah had in his October 17, 2019 application asked the Federal Court to review and set aside its own January 13, 2015 decision to convict Azilah on the murder.
Stressing the importance for finality of decisions for the administration of justice, Azahar said that there should be no further appeal once the Federal Court delivers its decision as it is the apex court of the country, but noted that the Federal Court however has powers under Rule 137 of the Rules of Federal Court to review its own decision.
“The legal powers in respect of the court’s review power is well-established, the power to review is to be used sparingly and only in circumstances which can be described as exceptional,” the judge said.
The judge noted, however, that Azilah’s review application was based on purported new evidence that was not presented during the Altantuya murder trial, making a reference to Azilah’s October 2019 statutory declaration of alleged instructions from a third party to conduct murder.
“Now it must be emphasised that he kept silent about this so-called new evidence during his investigation, during trial in High Court and appeals at Court of Appeal and also Federal Court.
“Indeed, this so-called new evidence which was available before the High Court trial and three levels of court was deliberately suppressed by the applicant himself, he himself withheld the so-called evidence from the police, his lawyers and the courts.
“Clearly in our judgment, the introduction of so-called new evidence is not in accordance with established legal principles,” the judge said.
“We are of the view on the face of records it has not been shown there was injustice in the present case,” the judge said, adding that there is no grounds to show there was breach of natural justice or miscarriage of justice.
“And in our judgment, there’s no exceptional circumstances for a review under Rule 137. We therefore dismiss this review application,” he concluded.
The other judges on the Federal Court’s panel today were Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Zaleha Yusof, and Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof.
Today was the hearing of Azilah’s application for the review of the Federal Court’s January 2015 decision to convict and sentence him and another to death over the murder of Altantuya.
In December 2019, Azilah had filed an application to the Federal Court to seek for a review of his conviction and death sentence in 2015 over Altantuya Shaariibuu’s 2006 murder, and also sought for a retrial by having the case sent back to the High Court to be heard again. Azilah’s review application had named the public prosecutor as the sole respondent.
In Azilah’s statutory declaration dated October 17, 2019 and published in full by news portal Malaysiakini in December 2019, the former police Special Action Unit (UTK) officer claimed that Najib as the then deputy prime minister had in 2006 allegedly given him the orders to kill Altantuya and dispose of her body with explosives.
Najib had previously dismissed Azilah’s claims as a “complete fabrication” and maintained his innocence while also welcoming police investigations into the allegations.
In January 2015, the Federal Court reversed the Court of Appeal’s August 2013 acquittal of Azilah and former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, reinstating the High Court’s April 2009 conviction and mandatory death sentence on the duo over Altantuya’s murder.
Azilah has been on death row in Malaysian prisons since then, while Sirul did not show up in court for the Federal Court decision and was later found in Australia where he is believed to remain under detention by Australian authorities until today.
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