Former police special commandore Suril Azhar Umar should stop hiding and running which he had been doing for the past nine years but to take a honest stand to make a clean breast of the truth about the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu – admit to being one of the two killers (together with Azila Hadri), demonstrate remorse at the heinous deed “under orders” and spell out the outrage that he is sentenced to death while the murder “mastermind” is allowed to get away scot-free.
The time has also come for Sirul to make a public declaration of his first confession to the police on November 9, 2006 on the Altantuya’s murder.
Although his confession to the police was declared inadmissible by the Kuala Lumpur High Court during Sirul’s trial in July 2007, Sirul must now declare whether his confession represented the truth.
On Feb. 3, 2009, a tearful Sirul had asked the court not to sentence him to death for Altantuya’s murder, saying he was like “a black sheep that has to be sacrificed” to protect unnamed people who have never been brought to court or faced questioning.
“I have no reason to cause hurt, what’s more to take the life of the victim in such a cruel manner,” Sirul said. “I appeal to the court, which has the powers to determine if I live or die, not to sentence me so as to fulfil others’ plans for me.”
In his Nov. 9, 2006 confession to the police, which had been ruled inadmissible in the Altantuya murder trial, Sirul said his boss at the time, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri who is also charged with Altantuya’s murder, had talked about a reward of between RM50,000 and RM100,000 if the case was settled.
According to Sirul’s confession to the police, Sirul and Azilah went to Malaya Hotel in Kuala Lumpur (where Altantunya was staying with two other Mongolians) a few days before Altantunya’s murder but decided not to kill the three women “because of the presence of CCTV (closed circuit television cameras).”
Ultimately, according to the confession, the two went to the house of Abdul Razak Baginda (confidante of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, at the time Deputy Prime Minister) where “there was a Chinese woman (Altantuya) who was causing a commotion.”
The two, with the help of a Malay woman, Lance Corporal Rohaniza Roslan, Azila’s former girlfriend, bundled Altantuya into a red Proton Wira and drove her to where Sirul’s jeep awaited.
“Along the journey, Azilah asked me to find a place to ‘shoot to kill the Chinese woman.”
Eventually after she was driven to Sirul’s house to pick up the military explosives that would be wrapped around her body after she was dead, she was then driven to the Punchak Alam forest reserve near the suburban city of Shah Alam.
“I saw Azilah outside the jeep carrying a bag containing an M5 weapon and silencer from the jeep that was located at the foot rest of the passenger seat and gave it to me ordering me to ‘shoot to kill’ the Chinese woman who was inside the jeep.”
They took her jewelry and other articles, Sirul said, and “I saw that she was in a state of fear and she pleaded not to kill her and said she was expecting.”
Nonetheless, Azilah wrestled her to the ground, apparently knocking her unconscious, and “I opened fire towards the left side of the woman’s head. After the Chinese woman was shot, Azilah removed all her clothes and I took a black garbage bag and Azilah put all the Chinese woman’s clothes into the bag.”
Azilah, he said, “noticed movements in the Chinese woman’s arm and ordered me to fire another shot but the gun did not fire. I then emptied the weapon and loaded the gun again and fired another shot at the same area which was the left side of the woman’s head. I then took a black plastic garbage bag and with Azilah’s help put the bag over the Chinese woman’s head to prevent blood from spilling.”
With Sirul holding her arms and Azilah holding her legs, they carried Altantuya into the woods.
“Azilah then carried the bag containing the explosives and handed it to me. I took the explosives and attached them to the victim’s head while Azilah attached the explosives on the victim’s legs up to the abdomen.”
After attaching a wire to the explosives, they blew her up.
After returning to the Bukit Aman police station, “I had a bath and changed clothes and put the clothes that I wore during the incident together with the victim’s clothes into a plastic bag. After that, I entered the jeep and drove the jeep to a rubbish container in the Bukit Aman area near a construction site. I threw some of the victim’s belongings and the wire that was used to detonate the explosives together with the empty bag that contained the explosives into the container.’
Then he went home and went to sleep.
If his confession was not the truth, let Sirul explain why and how he could provide such graphic and horrific details.
If he had not killed Atantuya together with Azila, is he saying that Azila was the one who solely committed Altantuya’s murder.
Furthermore, Sirul should also “tell all” about what transpired in the nine years from his arrest and being charged in court for Altantuya’s murder and his conviction and death sentence by the Federal Court from November 2006 to January 13, 2015, whether he had been promised at any time, and by whom, that he would be spared the consequences for his act “under orders” to kill Altantuya.
Sirul clearly had no motive to murder Altantuya as he did not know her (continuing to describe her as “the Chinese woman”, never knowing that she is Mongolian) and also did not know Abdul Razak Baginda.
If Sirul is not prepared to finally make a clean breast of the truth of the heinous Altantunya murder in October 2006, it will be difficult for decent and well-meaning people, whether in Malaysia, Australia or world-wide not to be cynical and ambivalent about his cries of outrage and injustice at being sentenced to death while the murder mastermind is allowed to get away scot-free.