Putrajaya still studying ways to bring Sirul back to Malaysia

Australia's laws, which forbid it from sending a person to another country to face the death penalty, has complicated the matter, says home ministry.

DEWAN RAKYAT

PETALING JAYA: The government is still studying ways to bring convicted murderer Sirul Azhar Umar back from Australia, said the home ministry.

In a written reply to Ramkarpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) in the Dewan Rakyat today, Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the process of extraditing Sirul was complicated as it involved another country’s laws and policies.

Ramkarpal had asked why the government had decided to stop the extradition process.

“The government’s efforts to bring back Sirul so he can serve the death sentence (handed to him) touches on the issue of human rights.

“According to the extradition treaty, the application documents need to state what form of punishment will be handed to the criminal,” he said in the written reply.

In Sirul’s case, the Federal Court found both him and another former police commando, Azilah Hadri, guilty of the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, sentencing the two men to death.

Sirul fled to Australia before the Federal Court’s decision. The country’s laws forbid the authorities from sending a person to another country to face the death penalty, the ministry added.

“On that basis, the government is still studying the best way to handle this issue.”

Altantuya, 28, a translator and mother of two boys, was killed in Octeober 2006.

She was said to have been shot twice in the head before being wrapped in military grade explosives and blown to pieces in a forest on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The motive for the crime remains unknown. -FMT