KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s top court set aside the death penalty on Thursday for a former policeman convicted of the murder of a Mongolian woman, sentencing him instead to 40 years in jail, his lawyer said.
The change comes after Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty last year, allowing those on death row to seek review of their sentences.
Azilah Hadri had been handed the death penalty after being found guilty of the 2006 murder of 28-year-old Altantuya Shaariibuu, a model and interpreter to a former associate of former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
A three-member panel of Malaysia’s Federal Court unanimously commuted Azilah’s death sentence to 40 years in jail, effective from his arrest in November 2006, and 12 strokes of the cane, his lawyer, Athari Bahardin, said.
Shaariibuu Setev, the victim’s father, had backed the policeman’s request for a commuted death sentence, citing a need to respect the sanctity of life in a letter to the court that was seen by Reuters.
Sangeet Kaur Deo, a lawyer for Altantuya’s family, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Altantuya was killed and her body blown up with military-grade explosives in a forest on the outskirts of Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur in 2006, court records show, but the question of who ordered the slaying remains unanswered.
Civil society groups have said her murder was linked to her role as an interpreter in Malaysia’s purchase of two French submarines in 2002.
In a 2019 court filing, Azilah had accused ex-premier Najib, who was Malaysia’s defence minister at the time of the murder, of ordering the killing.
Najib, now serving a six-year jail term for corruption, has repeatedly denied allegations linking him to Shaariibuu or graft in the submarine purchases.
Azilah was convicted in 2015 along with another police officer, Sirul Azhar Umar, who fled Malaysia shortly before the verdict was handed down.
Both were serving on Najib’s security detail at the time of the murder.
Sirul, arrested on an Interpol notice was held in an Australian immigration detention centre for nearly nine years before his release in November 2023.
Australian law forbids the deportation of people to places where they face the death penalty.
(Reporting by Danial Azhar and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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