Sirul in legal limbo in Sydney

Sirul cannot be released in Sydney because of his conviction neither can he be extradited to Malaysia because Australia opposes capital punishment.

PETALING JAYA: An international professor of law has said that convicted killer Sirul Azhar Umar could very likely languish in a Sydney detention centre for an indefinite time.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Ben Saul of the University of Sydney said Sirul was in a state of legal limbo as Australia refuses to send him back to Malaysia due to the death sentence hanging over his head yet he cannot be released into Australian society because he is a convicted killer.

He also added, “According to the UN, it is absolutely clear that in these cases of indefinite detainment, Australia is in breach of International law,” something another lawyer Dan Mori described as “unlawful arbitrary detention”.

Mori is currently the lawyer for Serbian war criminal Dragan Vasiljkovic who has been fighting extradition for nine years.

Diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Australia became strained when the Australian government said they could not hand over Sirul to Malaysian authorities because they opposed capital punishment.

Sirul fled the country for Australia before he was convicted of murdering 28-year-old Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and was sentenced to death.

Australian Immigration authorities did however arrest him at his family’s home in Ipswich, Queensland on January 20 after Interpol issued an alert on him.

Sirul is currently detained at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney’s western suburbs.

Undaunted by Australia’s refusal to cooperate, Malaysia has said it will take legal action in Australia to bring Sirul back to face his sentence.

According to the news portal, the only course of appeal remaining for Sirul is for a Malaysian sultan to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment, which could then reopen talks on extradition.