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Bizzare Murder of a Mongol Beauty: A Scandal that Still Haunts Malaysia

Altantuya Shaariibuu went to Malaysia to meet her ex-lover, instead, she ended up dead.

nahanara
7 min readApr 28, 2021
Altantuya Shaariibuu Photo: SCMP

Who is Altantuya?

Altantuya was born in 1978 in Mongolia. Her family later moved to Russia, then the Soviet Union, for work. She grew up in Russia and was reported to be fluent in Russian, Mongolian, Chinese and English. The family later returned to Mongolia in 1990. She married twice but both marriages ended in a divorce. She had two sons. Her mother said in an interview that Altantuya was running her own company at the time of her death. [1][2]

The Affair

She met Abdul Razak Baginda, a Malaysian defence analyst, who was married at the time in 2004 in Hong Kong. According to Abdul Razak, Altantuya introduced herself as a student of Korean and Chinese descent. Abdul Razak confessed to giving Altantuya money on several occasions during their affair of around US$10,000 each time. Their affair lasted 8 months. Abdul Razak ended the affair claiming due to Altantuya being untruthful and manipulative. After their affair ended, Abdul Razak claimed Altantuya started to harass and blackmail him for money. She reportedly came to Malaysia in April of 2006 to blackmail him for “very personal…

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