PUTRAJAYA: Former cop Azilah Hadri escaped the gallows after the Federal Court commuted his death sentence to 40 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for murdering Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006.
In a unanimous decision, a three-member Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat allowed the former police chief inspector's application to review his death sentence to be commuted to a term of imprisonment.
This follows the passing of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023, which took effect on July 4, last year.
Under the new law, judges now have the discretion to impose either the death penalty or imprisonment of not less than 30 years and up to 40 years.
Other members of the bench were Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judge Datuk Nordin Hassan.
Tengku Maimun, when reading the judgment stated that the bench had carefully considered Azilah's affidavit and a letter from Altantuya's family, which supported his application.
"The application is granted, the death sentence is substituted with 40 years' imprisonment starting from the date of arrest on Nov 1, 2006, along with 12 strokes of the cane," she said.
Earlier, Azilah's lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar read parts of the letter from Dr Shaariibuu Setev in support for his client's review application.
"As far as the impact on the victim's family, as far as that is concerned, we have the letter from the victim's father.
"He also asked us to mitigate the death sentence to life imprisonment," he said.
According to the trial, Altantuya was shot dead before her body was blown up with explosives at a secluded spot near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, by Azilah and Sirul Azhar Umar, who is also a former cop.
In 2009, the Shah Alam High Court imposed the death penalty against the duo after finding them guilty of murdering Altantuya at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10pm on Oct 19 and 1am the following day in 2006.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda of abetting the murder.
Even if the Appellate court has ruled to free Azilah and Sirul from the charges, the Federal Court in 2015 overturned the decision and upheld the death sentence imposed by the High Court.
Sirul Azhar fled to Australia and was later apprehended by Australian immigration, while Azilah has been serving his sentence as a death row inmate since then.
He filed a review over the top court's ruling in 2019, 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.
He also had sought to set aside his conviction and death sentence imposed by the Federal Court on Jan 13, 2015, and an order for retrial.
However, his application was dismissed by a five-man bench led by the then Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed on Dec 8, 2020.
The court ruled that Azilah's application had not shown that there was injustice in his case.
Azilah is currently in Sungai Buloh prison awaiting a decision from the state pardon board.
In 2022, Altantuya's family won RM5 million in damages in a civil suit against Azilah, Sirul, Abdul Razak, and the government after they were found liable for her death.