Azilah ‘relieved’ to no longer face death over Altantuya’s murder; 2034 is earliest release from 40-year jail time
PUTRAJAYA, Oct 10 — Former police commando Azilah Hadri was “relieved” with the Federal Court’s decision today to grant his application for his death sentence to be reduced to imprisonment and caning over the 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, his lawyer said.
When met by reporters outside the courtroom after the Federal Court’s decision, Azilah’s lawyer J Kuldeep Kumar said of his client: “He was relieved.”
Azilah had through his lawyers applied for the Federal Court to replace his death penalty with 30 years’ jail. The 30 years’ jail time is the lowest number of years he could apply to the Federal Court for his death sentence to be replaced with under the existing laws in Malaysia.
The Federal Court decided to replace his death sentence with 40 years’ jail — which is the highest number of years it can impose under the current law as an alternative to death penalties for murder convicts in Malaysia.
Asked when Azilah will be able to be released from prison, Kuldeep said: “We believe it’s most probably in 2034, after remission.”
Speaking to the media, Azilah’s lawyer Athari Bahardin explained how the legal team arrived at this estimated calculation of 2034 as the earliest possible release date from prison.
Using the 40 years’ jail time, Athari said the calculations would then exclude the 16 years and three months that Azilah had already spent in prison since his November 1, 2006 arrest, as well as the one year four months and 21 days which Azilah had spent outside of prison in between August 2013 to January 2015.
He said that the calculations would then take into account the usual remission given to prisoners, and which would then mean Azilah could be released by 2034.
Prisoners are typically given a one-third remission or reduction of the jail time they have to serve, if they show good behaviour while in prison.
Azilah, 48, is currently a prisoner in the Sungai Buloh prison. If he is released by 2034, it would be the year when he is 58 years old.
Earlier today, Kuldeep read out in the Federal Court a letter by Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev which supported Azilah’s application to replace his death penalty with imprisonment.
Speaking of Shaariibuu Setev’s letter which came via his lawyers, Kuldeep said: “We are grateful for what the father has done.”
Separately, Azilah had in April 2017 reportedly filed an application to the Selangor Sultan to ask for a royal pardon.
Athari today confirmed to reporters that the pardon application “is still pending in Selangor”.
