ALTANTUYA Shaariibuu’s eldest son, Bayarkhuu Bayarjargal, told the Shah Alam High Court today that he had to change his name in order to escape public scrutiny over the death of her mother.

“In 2011 or 2012, I changed my name. I had to change my name due to the negative attention I suffered after the death of my mother Altantuya Shaariibuu,” he said in his witness statement.

“After her death and as a result of all the negative publicity of her death, I was often bullied and teased in school and picked on. After years of enduring this, my grandfather and I discussed this and we decided it would be best to change my name.”

Bayarkhuu also spoke of a relationship that had ended after the girl’s family found out he was Altantuya’s son.

“I was in a relationship with a girl for three years. My grandfather had proposed for us to be married. When her parents discovered that I was Altantuya’s son, they immediately called off the whole relationship,” he said. 

He was given the name Mungunshagai when he was born. He recently graduated from the National University of Mongolia with a degree in business.

Bayarkhuu, Shaariibuu Setev and other family members filed a RM100 million civil suit in 2007 against the Malaysian government and three other respondents including former defence analyst Abdul Razak Baginda for damages and dependency claims. 

Bayarkhuu, 21, said he found out about Altantuya’s death in October 2006 from a conversation between his grandparents. He was nine at that time. 

“Only after some time I knew of the details of her murder through the news and gossips by the people around me. Nobody could explain or tell how she suddenly died. As I grew older, I read more about it on the internet,” he said.

Bayarkhuu said he felt disbelief and shock over the details of his mother’s death.

“(I was) very, very sad and lonely, that I was asking myself why am I so unlucky to lose my mother. I was even more angry and hurt when I knew that she was murdered in Malaysia and despised the people who were responsible for her death.

“It was very hurtful when people around me were always talking abut her death or murder in Malaysia especially in Ulaanbaatar where the community is small and everyone would know one another. It was totally unbearable for me who was just a young child then,” he said.

Bayarkhuu said he spent the following three summer school holidays with relatives in the countryside “just to escape from the town gossips”.

“They were very lonely, painful and sad years of growing up as I remember clearly listening to my friends’ parents telling their children not to play with me just because my mother was murdered in Malaysia. 

“It took years for me to grow accustomed to the society talks and negative perception towards our family as I realised that there’s nothing that would stop anyone from talking about her death.”

Bayarkhuu described his mother as “very loving” and “adventurous”, and had taken her two sons out for movies, picnics and to playgrounds. 

Bayarkhuu testified that his mother also took his half-brother Altanshagai Munkhtulga, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, to China for physiotherapy. 

Altanshagai passed away in 2017 at age 15. – January 30, 2019.