PUTRAJAYA: The hearing of former police commando Azilah Hadri’s review application to set aside his conviction and death sentence for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu scheduled today at the Federal Court has been vacated.
Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar said the Attorney-General’s Chambers received a notice from the court dated April 14 stating that the hearing was postponed and a new hearing date would be fixed.
Azilah’s counsel J. Kuldeep Kumar, when contacted, also confirmed receiving an e-mail from the court stating the review hearing has been vacated.
In December last year, the court had set today for hearing Azilah’s application. However, the Movement Control Order (MCO) has been extended until April 28.
The Federal Court was scheduled to hear today Azilah’s application as well as former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s application to intervene in Azilah’s review.
Azilah who is currently on Death Row at Kajang Prison, filed his review application on Dec 5 last year together with his 32-page statutory declaration in which he claimed that the order to kill Altantuya had come from the former prime minister (Najib) who was deputy prime minister then.
Azilah, 43, is seeking to set aside his conviction and death sentence imposed by the Federal Court on Jan 13, 2015, and an order for retrial.
In December last year, lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the media that Najib had totally denied everything that had been alleged by Azilah.
Azilah and Sirul Azhar Umar, 47, were convicted and sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court in 2009 for Altantuya’s murder at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10 pm on Oct 19, 2006, and 1am the following day.
They were, however, acquitted by the Court of Appeal in 2013 which allowed their appeal to set aside their conviction and death sentence.
In 2015, the Federal Court overturned the acquittal of the two police commandos and restored the High Court decision to find them guilty for the offence. - BERNAMA