KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 23 — The prosecution should not be blamed for today's appellate court decision to reverse the 2009 death sentence on Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu's convicted former policemen, Attorney-General (A-G) Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has said.

Faced with public fire for the release of the two former police commandos for the high-profile 2006 murder of the Mongolian beauty, Abdul Gani issued terse statement pointing his finger back to the High Court judge.

"Non-directions by the trial judge on issues raised by the appellants in his judgement which amounted to misdirections and the non-calling of one DSP Musa Hj Safri formed the main grounds of the setting aside of the conviction and sentence.

"While respecting the Court of Appeal, the Attorney General’s Chambers for the prosecution is dissatisfied with the decision as non-direction or misdirection by the trial court is not the fault of the prosecution," he said.

The government's top lawyer also maintained that testimony from Musa -- who was aide-de-camp to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, then the deputy prime minister -- was irrelevant to the prosecution's case during the marathon trial.

"As far as DSP Musa Hj Safri, we maintained that his testimony had no relevance at all as the whole narrative of the prosecution’s case had been unfolded in the trial below," he said, and concluded his statement by pledging to appeal the conviction reversal to the Federal Court.

Abdul Gani's statement came on the heels of a demand for an explanation from opposition lawmakers who condemned the A-G for its flawed handling of the prossecution.

The Court of Appeal had this morning overturned Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar Umar’s 2009 conviction, reportedly ruling that there was a misdirection by the High Court judge in the trial then.

The DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo said Abdul Gani Patail must now answer for the prosecution team’s failure to ensure a safe conviction.

“The A-G must explain why is it they failed to call material witnesses in support of their case in this prosecution,” Puchong MP said.

“It is difficult to comprehend how it is the A-G and his chambers, with the vast experience they have, could have omitted to call all these witnesses necessary to prove the case, resulting in which the Court of Appeal has now found it unsafe for a conviction against Sirul and Azilah to stand,” the head of the DAP’s legal bureau told The Malay Mail Online.

PKR vice-president N. Surendran labelled the Altantuya case as a “national embarrassment”, noting the global audience that the murder of the Mongolian model had garnered.

“We expected this because from the beginning the Altantuya trial was a charade and it was intended to hide the truth and not to find who the perpetrators are and punish them,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Surendran said that despite Altantuya’s death over six years ago, no one has been brought to book for the murder.

PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said he respected the court’s decision today, but said new questions would now arise.

“But this decision would cause a question to arise, who is Altantuya’s murderer?” he asked.

“Will it be that after this there would be stories that Altantuya killed herself?” the Pokok Sena MP later asked

He expressed concern that such unanswered questions would tarnish the country’s name and create the perception that Malaysia was unsafe.

Mahfuz then proposed a reinvestigation and called for the formation of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the matter.

The Court of Appeal’s decision today was delivered by a three-man panel of Datuk Seri Mohamed Apandi Ali, Datuk Linton Albert and Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

Azilah and Sirul, both formerly with the police’s Special Action Unit (UTK), were found guilty in 2009 of committing the offence in Mukim Bukit Raja in Klang between 10pm on October 19, 2006 and 1am on October 20, 2006.

During the course of their trial, it was revealed that the Mongolian model was shot and her body blown-up with explosives in a jungle clearing on the night of October 19.

The two had been charged under section 149 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.

Altantuya was said to have acted as a translator for Perimekar Sdn Bhd in Malaysia’s multi-billion ringgit purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines from French firm DCNS, prior to her murder.

Perimekar is owned by Abdul Razak Baginda, and reportedly received RM574 million in commission for providing support and co-ordination services to Putrajaya for the 2002 deal, back when Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the defence minister.

Abdul Razak was initially charged with abetting Azilah and Sirul but was acquitted on October 31, 2008, after the Shah Alam High Court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

Azilah and Sirul were released from jail this evening, following the Court of Appeal's ruling.