SIRUL Azhar Umar, the former Special Branch cop convicted of killing Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, does not want to return to Malaysia even if his death sentence is commuted to life in jail.
He believes he will end up dead in prison, he told The Guardian in an interview.
“I don’t want to go back. People say: ‘Don’t give a pardon’. I would be killed in jail,” he was quoted as saying.
Sirul and another former SB policeman Azilah Hadri were convicted of the murder of Altantuya in 2006 in Shah Alam. Both were Najib Razak’s bodyguards before he became prime minister in 2009.
The Mongolian woman had been pregnant with the child of her lover, said to be Abdul Razak Baginda, a defence analyst who advised Najib between 2000 and 2008 when Najib was in charge of defence. Razak was charged with abetment in the murder but was freed without being told to enter his defence.
Altantuya was shot twice with a semi-automatic weapon and her body blown up with C4 -military-grade explosives - to destroy evidence of her pregnancy.
Altantuya had worked on the controversial Scorpene submarine deal, a scandal the new government in Putrajaya might investigate.
The US$1.2 billion (RM4.8 billion) submarine purchases were made when Najib was defence minister in 2002. The former prime minister has maintained he did not know the Mongolian.
About two weeks ago, Sirul said he would “spill the beans” on the murder in return for a full pardon.
He claimed the “main witness was not called” during the murder trial, and he was made the"scapegoat” in an “elaborate political crime”.
Lawyer Ramkarpal Singh, who represents Altantuya’s family and is also the Bukit Gelugor MP, shot down Sirul’s offer, saying the man’s testimony was not essential.
Ramkarpal had earlier called on Putrajaya to set up a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the motive for Altantuya’s killing.
Sirul, who has been detained at the Villawood immigration detention centre in western Sydney since he was picked up more than three years ago following an Interpol warrant, insisted he was not the person who killed her.
“I bring her (Altantuya) halfway along the road, I give her to Azila,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.
He said Azila – who is now on death row at the Kajang prison – had made up his alibi and told the court that Sirul was the last person with the Mongolian.
“I am not a bad person, but the case makes me out as bad,” Sirul said.
The man who had left for Australia before he was sentenced to death also said he did not flee justice.
Australia has so far refused to extradite Sirul due to the death penalty in Malaysia. He is not allowed to enter community in Australia.
To remain in Australia, Sirul must prove to local authorities that he did not kill the woman. – May 30, 2018.
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Comments
Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply
The Treaty between the Government of Australia and the Government of Malaysia on Extradition (Putrajaya, 15 November 2005) and an Exchange of Notes between the Government of Australia and the Government of Malaysia on the Treaty on Extradition (Kuala Lumpur, 7 December 2005) (the Extradition Treaty with Malaysia) provides for the surrender of an accused or convicted person to the other Party to face criminal charges or serve a sentence.
In Australia, Section 22(3)(c) of the Extradition Act 1988 (Cth) (the Extradition Act) provides that an extradition request for an offence punishable by the death penalty will be refused unless the Requesting Country gives an undertaking that :
the person will not be tried for the offence;
if the person is tried for the offence, the death penalty will not be imposed on the person;
if the death penalty is imposed on the person, it will not be carried out.
The said Australian statutory provision has been provided in the Extradition Treaty with Malaysia vide Article 3 clause 2 which states the specific requirement for consultation before any request is made for extradition of a person to face an offence which carries capital punishment. This clause enables Australia and Malaysia to come to an agreement as to the terms and conditions on which the person will be extradited, if at all. That enables Australia either to get an undertaking from Malaysia in accordance with the terms of section 22 of the Extradition Act or, alternatively, allows Malaysia to consider whether it wishes to change the charges for which it will seek the extradition to charges which do not carry the death penalty.
In short, Malaysia as the Requesting Country merely needs to give an undertaking that the death penalty already imposed upon the convicted Malaysian who is now an Australian detainee, will not be carried out and shall be replaced by a lifetime incarceration of penal imprisonment.
The Requesting Party, Malaysia merely bears the expense of transportation and document translation whereas Australia, the Requested Party bears the expense of all other costs incurred in the Requested Party during extradition proceedings, such as through arrest and detention.
The costs to be met by Australia will be met from the existing budgets of the Attorney-General’s Department and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
Posted 8 years ago by Hakimi Abdul Jabar · Reply