Death penalty of Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar should be commuted to life imprisonment in exchange for their confession as to who directed them to kill Mongolian Shaariibuu Altantunyaa

Malaysiaki journalist Hariz Mohd today in a report entitled “LCS scandal: Audit reports show ‘unusual’ deal before govt contract awarded” said two separate audit exercises on Putrajaya’s procurement of six littoral combat ships (LCS) for the Royal Malaysian Navy revealed that there may have been a deal between the main contractor and controversial shipbuilder DCNS before the government issued its contract.

This was based on a quotation issued by DCNS to Boustead Naval Shipyard (BNS) dated Dec 23, 2010, one year before the government awarded the LCS contract to BNS.

DCNS, now known as the Naval Group, is a French-based company that developed the Gowind design for navy vessels, which was the design approved by the then defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in 2011 despite objection from the navy as the LCS intended user.

It is also the same company that was key in Putrajaya’s controversial purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines in 2002.

According to an audit commissioned by Boustead Heavy Industries Corporation (BHIC), the quotation issued by DCNS was “unusual” and indicated that the deal was “predetermined” between the vendor and “certain vested persons at BHIC/BNS who were at the helm of the decision-making process”.

A similar finding was also pointed out in an audit report prepared by the committee on Procurement, Governance and Finance of the LCS chaired by former auditor-general Ambrin Buang.

There should be an investigation to ascertain whether the RM9 billion LCS scandal has anything to do with the earlier Scorpene scandal and the murder of the Mongolian Shaariibuu Altantunya in Shah Alam on 18th October 2006.

The duo, Azilah Hadri and Sirui Azhar Umar, who had been convicted of Altantunya’s murder after a 159-day trial, and were sentenced to death, should have their death penalty commuted to life imprisonment in exchange for their confession as to who had instructed them to murder Altantunya.