10 October 2024 :

Malaysia has commuted the death sentence of an ex-police guard of former premier Najib Razak, after the Southeast Asian country changed its law on capital punishment.
Azilah Hadri, one of two former security officials for Najib convicted for the 2006 murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian woman allegedly linked to Najib and one of his former advisers, will instead serve a sentence of 40 years and 12 strokes of the cane, Chief Justice Maimun Tuan Mat said in Federal Court in Putrajaya on October 10, 2024.
Malaysia abolished the mandatory death penalty last year while keeping capital punishment as an option for some offenses ranging from drug trafficking and terrorism to murder. After that, prisoners on death row were allowed to apply to have their sentences reviewed.
While Azilah has been imprisoned in Malaysia, the other convicted murderer, Sirul Azhar Umar, left the country for Australia, which won’t extradite him because Malaysia upholds the death penalty. Najib’s former adviser Abdul Razak Baginda was acquitted in 2008 of abetting the killing.
Altantuya, a linguist who spoke Russian and Chinese, had an affair with Razak, he has said. According to witnesses in the murder trial in 2007, she worked with him as a translator on Malaysia’s purchase of Scorpene-class submarines in France, which is now subject to investigation in both countries.
She died in Malaysia after being led to a secluded spot in a forest by the two convicted men. Police reports show she was shot and then blown up with explosives. While the two men were convicted of the crime, questions have swirled for years about the motive and who ordered the killing.
Azilah called for a retrial in 2019, penning a sworn statement saying that former Prime Minister Najib instructed him to covertly arrest and destroy her because she was a foreign spy and a threat to national security. Najib has denied involvement.
In a civil trial in 2022, a Malaysian court awarded Altantuya’s family 5 million ringgit ($1.2 million) in damages over her death. The suit, which was filed in 2017, named four defendants, Azilah, Sirul, Razak and the Malaysian government. Razak and the state are appealing.
In court on October 10, Azilah’s counsel read out a letter from Altantuya’s father supporting the commuting of the death sentence. The lawyer argued Azilah was only carrying out orders and wouldn’t be a threat to society if released after serving a life sentence. Azilah has already served more than 16 years in prison, his lawyer said. The 40-year sentence is from 2006, the chief justice later said.
The prosecutor contended that while these were mitigating factors, the gruesome manner of the murder meant it was in the public interest to uphold the death sentence.
Najib is currently in prison after being convicted of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering in relation to 1MDB, the fund that became the center of a multibillion dollar scandal that spawned probes across continents. He had his sentence halved to six years earlier this year.