Again, court strikes out PI Bala widow’s suit against Najib, Rosmah

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor were among eight individuals allowed to strike out a notice of appeal by A. Santamil Selvi, whose husband had been a key witness in the murder trial of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, April 24, 2015.

The widow of a key witness in the murder trial of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu has failed to restore her suit for losses suffered during the family's five-year exile in India.

This follows the Court of Appeal ruling today allowing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and six others to strike out the notice of appeal filed by A. Santamil Selvi whose suit was thrown out by a High Court last year on the grounds that she had no locus standi to bring the action on behalf of her late husband's estate.

"There were seven separate and distinct grounds of judgment," said bench chairman Datuk Mohd Zawawi Salleh.

He said Santamil's notice of appeal was defective and ought to be struck out.

She filed only one notice of appeal but the respondents said she should have submitted notices against each and every one of them.

The court also awarded costs of RM5,000 each to the respondents.

Zawawi fixed case management on May 6 as the court would hear Santamil's appeal to restore her suit against carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishin who did not apply to strike out her notice of appeal.

Lawyer Americk Sidhu, who is representing Santamil, told reporters that her suit could survive if the appellate court later finds that Deepak's action in the High Court to strike out her suit was not sustainable.

"As for the others, her cause of action has ended unless I get instructions to take the matter to the Federal Court," he said.

In early January, the widow of private investigator P. Balasubramaniam filed her notice of appeal after the High Court struck out her suit.

However, Najib, Rosmah, the prime minister's brothers Datuk Johari and Datuk Nazim Razak, senior lawyer Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, his son Sunil Abraham, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat and lawyer M. Arulampalam filed an application to strike out Santamil's notice of appeal as it was defective.

They said the appeal should be struck out on the grounds that seven separate notices of appeal should have been filed following the High Court's decision last year to strike out Santamil's suit.

Americk said he filed one notice of appeal because the High Court only delivered one decision in favour of all applicants.  

High Court judge Datuk Hasnah Mohamed Hashim, in dismissing Santamil’s suit last December, said she lacked the capacity to file for action on behalf of the estate of her late husband.

"There is no special circumstance to allow the merits of the suit to be heard because she has no locus standi," Hasnah said.

The RM2 million suit would have exposed the respondents' roles in sending her family into exile following controversies surrounding two statutory declarations made by Bala involving Altantuya and Najib.

This would also include why Bala was forced to retract his first sworn statement that highlighted Najib's involvement with Altantuya, and why he and his family were forced to leave the country in 2008 for almost five years.

Bala died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after he and his family returned from India.

Santamil and her three children in their affidavits to the court said that they would be out of time as the six-year deadline to file the action was July 2 last year.

Santamil, who filed the writ and statement of claim last June 9, also applied to extract the letter of administration to her late husband's estate.

Lawyer Datuk Mohd Hafarizam Harun, who appeared for Najib and Rosmah, and the counsel for the other respondents, said Santamil lacked the capacity as she had yet to obtain the letter of administration.

In the suit, the family said the defendants had caused Bala’s second statutory declaration "to be drafted without the instructions of the deceased and further caused the deceased to sign the same under threat and inducement".

Bala and his family left Malaysia after he signed a second statutory declaration in 2008 to denounce the first one he made, implicating Najib in the murder. The second statement purported to clear the prime minister of involvement in the case.

Bala came into the limelight after political analyst and Najib's associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, hired him to monitor Altantuya, and when he retracted his first sworn statement on the matter on July 4, 2008.

In the second statutory declaration, Bala said that he wished "to retract the entire contents of my first statutory declaration dated July 1, 2008. I was compelled to affirm the said first statutory declaration under duress".

The Federal Court on January 12 this year sentenced two former police commandos, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, to death for Altantuya's murder.

Sirul, who fled the country before sentencing, is in Australia and is being held in an immigration detention centre following a red notice issued by Interpol for his arrest.

He is expected to fight any attempt by the Malaysian government to have him extradited. However, Australia is unlikely to hand him over because of its policy against the death penalty.

- TMI