Sirul: I don’t want to come back, I would be jailed and killed

Australian immigration detainee Sirul Azhar Umar, who initially offered to provide information on the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu on condition of a full pardon to travel back to Malaysia, has decided against returning home.

In an interview with The Guardian, the former police commando instead expressed his wish to settle down in Australia.

“(DAP Bukit Gelugor MP) Ramkarpal Singh wants me to serve a life sentence. I don’t want to go back. People say: ‘Don’t give a pardon’. I would be killed in jail,” he said, when asked if he would be willing to go back to Malaysia if his sentence were commuted.

In 2015, Sirul and his colleague Azilah Hadri were sentenced to death for the murder of Altantuya in 2006.  

Both of them were at the time bodyguards to then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Azilah is presently on death row in prison, but Sirul fled to Australia three years ago.

The previous BN government did not extradite him, citing Australian law which does not recognise the death sentence.

Calls to reopen the Altantuya case emerged after Pakatan Harapan replaced BN as the federal government after the 14th general election.

On May 19, Sirul told Malaysiakini that he was willing to come home to assist in the case if he received a full pardon.

Ramkarpal subsequently said the government should not entertain Sirul's request for a full pardon as other witnesses were available.

The lawmaker had added that the government could reduce Sirul's sentence to life imprisonment in order to extradite him from Australia. He also said a royal commission of inquiry on the case could be formed if needed.

‘I am not a bad person’

When asked by The Guardian if he had information that would be valuable to any new inquiry, Sirul said, “No comment”.

He also declined to comment when asked if he could reveal who gave the orders for Altantuya's killing.

Sirul reportedly said he was the scapegoat in an elaborate political crime and that prosecutors in Malaysia had chosen not to call certain witnesses.

He said he had brought Altantuya "halfway along the road and gave her to Azilah".

"I am not a bad person, but the case makes me out as bad," he said. -Mkini