Prisons Dept rejects Shafee’s claim Azilah met VVIP outside jail

(MMO) – Azilah Hadri, the ex-police commando sentenced to death for murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu, never set foot outside the Kajang Prison the entirety of 2019, the Prison Department said today.

The department was responding to lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah’s claim yesterday that Azilah was brought outside the prison in breach of procedures to allegedly meet with a “VVIP”.

“In fact, the person named has never been taken outside of the prison since April 15, 2015.

“The last time he was taken outside the Kajang Prison was on April 15, 2015 for his trial proceedings at the Sepang magistrates court,” the department said in a statement.

There were no records of Azilah ever leaving the prison for any reason since then, it said.

The murder convict was visited 34 times by family members and met with lawyers 15 times over the past year.

It said such visits were consistent with what was allowed to death-row inmates under the Prisons Regulations.

“As such, any statement by any party that Azilah Hadri was brought outside of the Kajang Prison this year to meet a VVIP is completely untrue.”

Azilah made a statutory declaration that was released this week in support of his application for a review of the Federal Court’s 2015 decision to uphold his conviction.

In it, the former commando claimed he was ordered to kill Altantuya directly by Najib, to whom he had been assigned then as part of a protection detail.

Yesterday, Shafee alleged that Azilah was brought outside of the Kajang Prison in February to meet an unnamed VVIP.

In 2009, Azilah and another ex-commando, Sirul Azhar Umar, were found guilty of murdering Altantuya in 2006 but were released in 2013 on appeal.

Sirul, who fled to Australia prior to the 2015 Federal Court ruling, previously dangled a “tell-all” in return for a review of his death sentence but the government rejected this.