MALAYSIA has not made any extradition request for former policeman Sirul Azhar Umar, who is currently detained at the Villawood immigration detention facility in Sydney, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed today.

“He’s in immigration detention, he’s been held in detention and there has been no application for extradition by the Malaysian government. And that was confirmed by Dr Mahathir recently,” she told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. 

On June 8, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia has not submitted an extradition request to Canberra for Sirul’s extradiction.

Bishop, who is on a three-day visit to Malaysia, said Australia’s position in extradition cases would take into account whether or not the death penalty existed in the applying country. 

“We are on the United Nations Human Rights Council now and the abolition of death penalty is one of the pillars of our advocacy.

“That is the matter that we certainly discussed but I pointed out again that there has been no application for extradition in this particular case.”

Sirul, who is currently seeking asylum in Sydney, was sentenced to death over the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. He fled to Sydney in 2015. 

Sirul claimed that he had acted on orders from above, prompting the new Pakatan Harapan government to seek his repatriation to assist in new investigations into Altantuya’s death.

Previous Malaysian requests to bring back Sirul were turned down by Australia.

Sirul said he was prepared to tell the truth behind what transpired, provided that he was given a full pardon. Sirul, along with former chief inspector Azilah Hadri, were sentenced to death in 2009.

In 2013, the Court of Appeal overturned their sentences. But the death sentences were later upheld by the Federal Court.

Altantuya, 28, is believed to have been shot dead before the body blown up with military grade explosives in a jungle in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam. – August 1, 2018.