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Policemen Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar arrive at court in Shah Alam outside Kuala Lumpur in January, 2009. Photo: Reuters

Mongolian president urges Mahathir to reopen 2006 case of model murdered in Malaysia

Shaariibuu Altantuya was killed and blown up in 2006. Reports claim two ex-policemen accused of the crime were bodyguards for Najib

Malaysia

Mongolia’s president has urged new Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to reopen investigations into the murder of a Mongolian model near Kuala Lumpur in 2006, a move that could put more pressure on Mahathir’s embattled predecessor.

Shaariibuu Altantuya, 28, was killed and blown up with military grade explosives in a forest on the outskirts of Malaysia’s capital. In 2015, two former police officers were sentenced to death for the crime after first being sentenced in 2009 and acquitted four years later.

Mongolian model Shaariibuu Altantuya. Photo: EPA

But reports have alleged that the officers served as bodyguards for former prime minister Najib Razak, who was deputy prime minister at the time of the killing.

President Battulga Khaltmaa congratulated the 92-year old Mahathir on his appointment but said reopening the investigation would not only help justice but also ease tensions between the two countries.

“As president of Mongolia, I pay special attention to the aggravated crime, that in October 18, 2006, a citizen of Mongolia and mother of two children Shaariibuu Altantuya was murdered in Malaysia,” he said in a letter to Mahathir that was also published on his office’s website.

Civil society groups have claimed Shaariibuu’s murder was linked to her role as an interpreter and associate of Abdul Razak Baginda, a former adviser to Najib, in Malaysia’s purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines from French shipbuilding giant DCNS in 2002.

Malaysian political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda is chased by photographers as he leaves the High Court in Kuala Lumpur in November 2006. Photo: EPA

Najib has denied allegations of links to Shaariibuu or corruption in the purchase.

Najib’s coalition was defeated by Mahathir’s opposition alliance in a stunning election upset last week. Najib is currently under investigation as part of a probe into the scandal-hit state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: CALL TO REOPEN MODEL’S murder case
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