Altantuya’s father finally gets his day in court

Setev Shaariibuu continues to seek justice for his daughter who was murdered more than eight years ago.

PETALING JAYA: Six years later, Setev Shaariibuu, the father of murdered Mongolian, Altantuya Shaariibuu, can finally pursue his RM100 million civil suit filed against Abdul Razak Baginda, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, and Putrajaya.

The case had been stalled since June 2007 as the High Court wanted the criminal trial to be concluded first.

In 2008, Abdul Razak was charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul, but was acquitted without his defence being called while the duo were convicted by the High Court in 2009.

However, on August 2013, Azilah and Sirul were freed following the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit the two.

On January 13, a five-man Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria found Azilah and Sirul guilty and sentenced them to death for murdering Altantuya in 2006.

Following the conviction, Setev’s lawyer, Ramkarpal Singh, wrote to the Federal Court registry to obtain appeal records and announced that the High Court in Shah Alam had fixed case management for this Thursday, according to The Malaysian Insider.

“A Federal Counsel from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and a lawyer from our legal firm will be present before a judge who will give directives for the case to move forward,” informed Ramkarpal.

Setev and his wife who are guardians of Altantuya’s two sons, are seeking damages for “suffering, sorrow, as well as physical and mental anguish”.

Previously, Ramkarpal had said that he might subpoena Prime Minister Najib Razak, a close ally of Razak.

With Azilah and Sirul’s recent guilty verdict, the ball is in Setev’s court.

According to Federal Court judge, Suriyadi Halim Omar, the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt as there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence to link the two to the crime.

“The prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt which is a higher burden to secure the conviction. In our civil suit, it is on the balance of probability which is of a lower threshold,” said Ramkarpal.

Meanwhile, Putrajaya had filed its defence that it could not be held vicariously liable because the cops had acted on their own.