Altantuya murder: Family files for Razak Baginda to be declared bankrupt

The family of murder victim Altantuya Shaariibuu has filed for Abdul Razak Baginda to be declared bankrupt after he failed to pay them RM9.2 million.

The Mongolian model’s kin is seeking the amount after the civil court in 2022 ruled that the political analyst and three others must pay them RM5 million plus interest.

The other three are former police commandos Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar as well as the federal government.

According to the bankruptcy notice filed at the Shah Alam High Court on July 4, the family sought RM9,248,282.06 from Razak, which they said included interest.

The family’s counsel from Karpal Singh & Co contended that there was no stay of execution over the High Court ruling favouring them two years ago.

On Dec 16, 2022, judge Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera ordered the four parties to pay the compensation amount plus interest after ruling that the two former police officers were guilty of the October 2006 murder and that Razak was also liable because he was the link to Azilah and Sirul’s involvement.

In awarding the sum, Vazeer ruled that RM5 million was appropriate because the initial RM100 million sought by the family was “excessive and cannot be justified”.

However, the amounts to be paid by each party were not specified.

Razak responds

Meanwhile, Razak also turned to the Shah Alam High Court to quash the bankruptcy notice.

In a filing on Aug 15, he pointed out that the family is actually disputing the RM5 million compensation ruling.

He said this could be seen in the family’s ongoing appeal before the Court of Appeal for higher damages.

Razak also contended that the RM9.2 million amount was wrongly calculated.

He also claimed the bankruptcy notice was defective as the family previously never filed a separate claim for him to pay the judgment amount.

Razak and the government also have appeals before the appellate court to nullify the entire ruling.

Altantuya’s murder

Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 and her remains were blown up with military-grade explosives.

A separate criminal court convicted Azilah and Sirul of the murder and sentenced them to death in April 2009.

However, the criminal court acquitted Razak of abetting the murder without his defence being called in October 2008.

Azilah is currently in jail on death row in a Malaysian prison.

Sirul, however, fled to Australia before the Federal Court upheld the duo’s conviction and death sentence in 2015.

The apex court reversed an earlier Court of Appeal decision that quashed the guilty verdict of the two men.

Sirul was previously under the custody of Australian authorities, who have a policy of not deporting anybody facing the death penalty in the country of origin.

However, he has since been released.

Law firm Dass, Jainab & Associates are acting for Razak.

The government is represented by the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

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