Malaysian university slammed for talk by murdered Mongolian’s ex-lover

A Malaysian university has drawn anger over plans to host controversial analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, the former lover of a Mongolian woman whose body was blown up with military-grade explosives in one of the country’s most notorious murders. The controversy has spread beyond social media to the International Islamic University Malaysia’s own academics, who on Thursday called for a review of Abdul Razak’s appearance at the university’s International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) on Tuesday. Once an adviser and associate of jailed former leader Najib Razak when he was defence minister, Abdul Razak is scheduled to speak on the topic “Asia’s Heroes and Villains: A Study of Leadership” at the ISTAC. He now heads the ICON Centre for Global Affairs, a Kuala Lumpur-based think tank focused on international affairs and public policy. Abdul Razak was in a romantic relationship with Altantuya Shaariibuu, a 28-year-old Mongolian model and interpreter who was shot and whose body was destroyed with military-grade explosives in a forest outside Kuala Lumpur in October 2006. In 2002, Abdul Razak brokered a US$1.1 billion deal for the Malaysian Defence Ministry to buy two French Scorpene-class submarines. Altantuya allegedly demanded US$500,000 to stay quiet about corruption in the deal, fuelling speculation about the reason for her murder. The deal went ahead, with both submarines delivered to Malaysia in 2009. Allegations of kickbacks surrounding the purchase prompted investigations in Malaysia and France. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said in 2024 that its probe remained active and that new leads had emerged. But so far there has been no public update on its progress. Two members of an elite police unit attached to Najib’s security detail, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar, were ultimately convicted of Altantuya’s murder. Both men were sentenced to death after Malaysia’s Federal Court restored their murder convictions in 2015. Azilah’s sentence was commuted in 2024 to 40 years in prison and 12 strokes of the cane. Sirul fled to Australia before the 2015 ruling and remains there, where he was released from immigration detention in 2023. The question of who ordered the killing has never been resolved, while Najib has repeatedly denied knowing Altantuya or having any involvement in her death. Abdul Razak, who had said Najib never met Altantuya, was charged with abetting the murder but acquitted in 2008 without being called to enter his defence. However, the Court of Appeal in January dismissed his appeal against a separate civil finding that held him liable over Altantuya’s death, describing him as an “essential link” in the events leading to the killing. The court reduced the compensation payable by Abdul Razak and the two convicted policemen to Altantuya’s family from 5 million ringgit (US$1.22 million) to 1.4 million ringgit, the amount decided by the High Court in 2022. It also cleared the government of any liability. The family is appealing the compensation amount and for the government to be held liable, with the next hearing set for October 27 in the Federal Court. That history has sharpened criticism of a lecture explicitly centred on leadership. “It’s a shame that an institution calling itself Islamic would choose to platform Abdul Razak Baginda,” one Threads user wrote, arguing that his appearance sat uneasily with ISTAC’s stated intellectual and moral mission. “He was acquitted in the criminal case, yes, but in the separate civil suit, the court found him liable for her death and even drew an adverse inference from his refusal to testify. Yet somehow, this is the kind of ‘leadership’ ISTAC now finds worthy of its platform,” the user added. Another user described the invitation as “a disgrace to the noble aim of ISTAC founding”. The university’s Academic Staff Association stopped short of demanding the event be cancelled, but said Abdul Razak’s legal history made the choice of speaker particularly sensitive given its theme of “leadership and accountability”. “We believe the event would benefit from a more balanced platform,” the association said in a letter dated on Thursday. If the event were to proceed, the association urged the ISTAC to bring in a co-speaker offering a contrasting view, allow an extended question and answer session and ensure the moderator could directly questions Abdul Razak about “leadership and accountability” in relation to his own public history. It also proposed a more drastic alternative: replacing him with a speaker “not associated with a finding of civil liability”. This Week in Asia has reached out to the university for comment regarding the criticisms.

Malaysian university slammed for talk by murdered Mongolian’s ex-lover

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Abdul Razak, a former adviser to Najib Razak, still faces a civil suit after a court found him liable over Altantuya Shaariibuu’s death

Abdul Razak, a former adviser to Najib Razak, still faces a civil suit after a court found him liable over Altantuya Shaariibuu’s death