THE new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government must reopen investigations into the 2006 murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu in Shah Alam, her family’s lawyer Ramkarpal Singh said.

Reopening investigation into the murder, “one of the world’s great mysteries”, he said, was necessary as it was never clear who had ordered the two police officers – Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri – to murder the woman and blow up her body with C4 explosives.

“The new PH government must demonstrate strong political will to get to the bottom of Altantuya’s murder or risk being labelled as no different from its predecessor,” he said in a statement today.

Sirul and Azilah were found guilty and sentenced to death in 2015. Azilah is on death row at the Kajang prison while Sirul is being held in Australia, where he had fled to before the sentencing.

Ramkarpal, who is DAP’s Bukit Gelugor MP, said as both men were already convicted and sentenced, they could not be retried.

A way to find the truth now was by reopening investigations to find out who had ordered them to kill the Mongolian, he said.

He also called on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to convene a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to determine who had ordered Altantuya’s murder.

“The findings of the RCI in this regard can form the basis of a subsequent charge against those who had ordered Altantuya’s murder.

“Those parties must be charged for Altantuya’s murder as well for having shared a common intention with Azilah and Sirul to murder her even though they did not pull the trigger,” he said.

During the two officers’ murder trial, Ramkarpal said the prosecution had never presented evidence of who had ordered them to kill Altantuya, particularly when it was clear that they did not know her and had no reason to kill her.

He also noted that the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government had not extradited Sirul from Australia all these years, only saying it was studying the complicated extradition process after being questioned numerous times.

“Such an explanation does not inspire confidence at all and raises suspicion that the then BN government deliberately did not want to extradite Sirul, as he might be in possession of information which might implicate certain parties.”

Ramkarpal also said the fact that C4 explosives that were used to blow up the victim’s body could only be obtained from the Defence Ministry further fuelled speculation that her killing might had been ordered by those linked to the government.

The murder has long been linked to the Scorpene submarine scandal that also ties former prime minister and former defence minister Najib Razak to the controversy via his former adviser Abdul Razak Baginda.

The latter, a defence analyst who advised Najib between 2000 and 2008 when he was defence minister, was said to be Altantuya’s lover. Razak was charged with abetment in the murder but was freed.

“He was acquitted by the Shah Alam High Court without calling for his defence which the prosecution curiously did not appeal against,” Ramkarpal said.

“I have said before that the world must know who ordered the murder and the reason or reasons behind it. The PH government must act swiftly in this regard in accordance with the rule of law.” – May 17, 2018.