PUTRAJAYA: In a moving gesture, the father of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu gave his support for the application by former police commando Azilah Hadri to have his death sentence commuted to imprisonment.
Lawyer J. Kuldeep Kumar, representing Azilah, read parts of a letter from Dr Shaariibuu Setev, which spoke of “the sanctity of life”, in the Federal Court here yesterday before the court commuted the sentence to 40 years in jail.He was also ordered to be given the mandatory 12 strokes of the rotan.
“As far as the impact on the victim’s family is concerned, we have the letter from the victim’s father. He also asked us to mitigate the death sentence to life imprisonment,” Kuldeep Kumar said here yesterday.
The lawyer was submitting Azilah’s review application on his death sentence before a three-judge panel at the Federal Court.
Lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, who held a watching brief for Altantuya’s family, confirmed that she had the original copy of the letter.
Meanwhile, deputy public prosecutor Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar said the prosecution did not object to the letter.
“There is no dispute,” he said, referring to the letter’s authenticity.
The letter, which was written in both Mongolian and English, was also made available to the press.
Addressing “the advocate of Azilah Hadri”, Shaariibuu wrote in his heartfelt letter that his request stemmed from a “deep respect for the humanity of Mongolians”.
“Let us honour the virtues of humanity and uphold truthful expression in every nation,” he said.
Kuldeep Kumar also told the court that Azilah was raised in hardship in a poor family in Sarikei, Sarawak.
He persevered and became a policeman who served different police headquarters over the years.
He also received letters of recognition for solving cases such as armed robbery, drug trafficking and child kidnapping from former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and the inspector-general of police at that time.
Kuldeep Kumar said there was no evidence that Azilah was a serial killer nor did he do the crime for sexual reasons.
“He did not benefit monetarily from the murder. The prosecution also failed to prove any motive for the murder,” he said.
Azilah has served 16 years and three months in jail thus far, excluding the time when he was acquitted by the Court of Appeal.
