Altantuya murder: Court of Appeal frees cops

Two police special action unit personnel Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal here today discharged and acquitted them from the charge of murdering Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, seven years ago. A three-member panel of judges comprising justices Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, Datuk Linton Albert and Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat unanimously set aside the death sentence imposed by the Shah Alam High Court after allowing their appeal on conviction and sentence. In a 4-page summary judgment, the court ruled that the High Court Judge had misdirected himself in convicting them. Panel leader Justice Tengku Maimun, who read out the judgment, said the trial judge had misdirected himself by way of non-direction in failing to consider the station diary and in failing to make a finding whether the defence had cast a reasonable doubt on the prosecutions's case that Azilah who was the first accused in the case, was at the scene of the crime. Justice Tengku Maimun said on Azilah Hadri's defence alibi, the court did not find anywhere in the trial judge's grounds of judgment that he had considered whether the station diary showed or tend to show that Azilah's presence at Bukit Aman at the material time and he could not be or was unlikely to be at the crime scene. The courtroom was silent when the judge delivered the judgment while Azilah, 34, and Sirul Azhar, 39, looked calm after the verdict. "Looking at the whole circumstances of this case, it is our judgment that the cumulative effect of the non-directions by the learned trial judge rendered the conviction of the appellants unsafe. We, unanimously allow both appeals," said Justice Tengku Maimun. The duo were convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court in 2009, for murdering Altantuya, 28, at Mukim Bukit Raja in Shah Alam between 10pm on Oct 19, and 1am on Oct 20, 2006. Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, 50, who was charged with abetting them, was acquitted by the High Court on Oct 31, 2008 after the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against him.