KUALA LUMPUR – Former Malaysian Special Action Unit officer Sirul Azhar Umar, who received the death penalty for the 2006 murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, has reportedly been released from detention in Australia.
According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, this comes after the Australian High Court ruled on November 8 that non-citizens who were unable to be deported could no longer be “detained indefinitely” by immigration authorities.
The report also quotes Sirul’s Australia-based son, Shukri Azam, as confirming that the former corporal has been freed from detention.
The 23-year-old was quoted as saying: “(Sirul is) with me right now. I’m handling everything on his behalf right now.”
The report added that Sirul is part of about 91 other individuals, mostly refugees and several found guilty of violent crimes, who will be released from detention and allowed to remain in Australia under “special conditions”.
Sirul and fellow cop Azilah Hadri were found guilty by the high court here in 2009 for shooting and blowing up Altantuya, who was described as an interpreter, with military-grade explosives.
In 2013, the duo succeeded in overturning their conviction at the appellate court after a three-member panel, which included the current Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, found the conviction to be “unsafe”.
However, the Malaysian Federal Court in 2015 restored their conviction and sentenced them to death. Prior to the apex court’s ruling, Sirul had fled to Australia, where he stayed under the custody of Australian authorities at Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre until his release.
Australia has a policy of not deporting anybody facing the death penalty in their country of origin.
Azilah remains on death row in Kajang Prison, the same prison complex that houses former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, whose reportedly close associate Abdul Razak Baginda was also charged with abetting Altantuya’s murder.
Razak was acquitted in 2008 without his defence being called.
In April, Parliament passed a bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty, which will allow judges to mete out appropriate sentences proportional to the crime that was committed, including the death sentence if deemed necessary by their discretion. – November 12, 2023