PUTRAJAYA: The death sentence of former chief inspector Azilah Hadri for the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006 is maintained following the Federal Court's decision dismissing his application seeking a retrial and review of his 2015 conviction.
A five-man bench led by Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed in dismissing Azilah's application ruled that the latter had not shown that there was injustice in his case.
The court also held that Azilah's suppression of evidence that the act of murder was upon the instructions from a third party was not an exceptional circumstance warranting a review.
In delivering the decision, Azahar said Azilah had kept silent about the new evidence which was available in his 32-page statutory declaration (SD) during the investigation, during his trial at the High Court and in his appeals at the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court.
"This so-called material evidence which was available during the trial was deliberately suppressed by the applicant (Azilah) himself. He himself did not tell the police, his lawyers and the courts (about it).
"We are of the view that on the face of the court, it has not been shown that there was injustice in the present case, there was no grounds to say there was breach of the rule of natural justice nor was there infringement of any statutory law... there was also no miscarriage of justice and no exceptional circumstances for a review.
"We therefore dismiss this review application," he said.
The other judges presiding were Federal Court judges Datuk Seri Mohd Zawawi Salleh, Datuk Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Datuk Zaleha Yusof and Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof.
After the proceedings, Azilah turned around and kissed the cheeks of a family member who was present in the courtroom.
Azilah, 43, who is on the Death Row, filed his review application on Dec 5 last year together with his 32-page statutory declaration, which claims that the order to kill Altantuya had come from Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who was the deputy prime minister.
Azilah had sought to set aside his conviction and death sentence imposed by the Federal Court on Jan 13, 2015, and an order for retrial.
Earlier, the court dismissed an application by Najib to intervene in the review application.
In its decision, the court ruled that it was clear, that the interested parties in the review application were Azilah himself and the Public Prosecutor.
"The proposed intervenor (Najib) was never prosecuted and therefore not an accused person in this way and would not be directly affected by way of any order which would be made by the court in regards with the review application.
"In our opinion, the proposed intervenor given rise to (his) legal interests are not related to or connected to the subject matter.
"It is also our opinion, that the parties in the review application, namely the Public Prosecutor and Azilah, are both able to assist the court in the application," Azahar said.
However, the court allowed Najib's counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to hold watching brief to follow the case on behalf of his client.
Meanwhile, Shafee when met outside the court said they were considering to apply for Azilah's SD to be expunged.
"The SD is currently in court. We are considering to expunge it whether it is worthwhile doing or not. It was a very expressed statement," he said.