Govt, Razak ordered to deposit RM9m to Altantuya's family pending appeal

The Shah Alam High Court has ordered the government and political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda to deposit over RM9 million in compensation to the family of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Judicial commissioner M Sumathi ruled that both parties must make the payment within 30 days, The Edge reported.

According to the family’s lawyer, Sangeet Kaur Deo, the sum must be deposited into the account of the legal firm Karpal Singh & Co until the appeal process is concluded.

The government and Razak (above) were ordered to pay RM4.702 million each to Altantuya’s family and RM25,000 in costs.

However, the judge allowed an oral application for a conditional stay that resulted in the judgment sum being deposited in a trust account managed by the family's counsel, pending disposal of the appeal.

It was earlier reported that the civil court in 2022 ruled that the political analyst and three others must pay the Mongolian model’s kin RM5 million plus interest.

The other two parties were former police commandos Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar.

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.

Criminal court acquittal

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 was on death row until October last year when he escaped the gallows after the Federal Court commuted his death sentence with 40 years in jail and 12 rotan strokes.

Sirul fled to Australia before the Federal Court upheld the duo’s conviction in 2015.

For overstaying a tourist visa, Australian authorities detained Sirul up until November 2023, when the 52-year-old was released from immigration detention and is understood to still be in Australia.

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