KUALA LUMPUR – DAP lawmaker Lim Lip Eng’s recent motion for Parliament to discuss the extradition of Sirul Azhar Umar is aimed at getting the Cabinet to assure the Australian government that the ex-police officer can have his death sentence for the murder of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu reviewed by the court here.
When contacted by Scoop, the Kepong MP said that if the motion is allowed to be tabled in the lower House, he would push for the Cabinet to “give an undertaking that Siruls’s death sentence will not be executed if he returns.”
“Cabinet can promise to Australia that Sirul can return. Sirul can then return and apply to the court to commute his death sentence,” he said when explaining the purpose of his motion.
Lim’s motion, which cited Standing Order 18(1) regarding matters of urgent public importance, was submitted to Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul on November 14.
“Under normal circumstances, a convict on death row will definitely want the sentence to be reviewed. (Sirul) has no legitimate status to stay in Australia,” Lim told Scoop.
In 2018, Lim lodged a police report calling for the Altantuya murder case to be reopened, as the motive behind the killing supposedly remained unknown.
Sirul, alongside fellow Special Action Unit officer Azilah Hadri, received the death penalty in 2009 for the high-profile and politically-charged murder of translator and former model Altantuya, who was shot and then blown up with military-grade explosives in 2006.
Azilah currently remains a death row inmate in Sg Buloh Prison.
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 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 had been staying under the custody of Australian authorities at Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre, until his release last week.
His release was allowed after the Australian high court ruled on November 8 that non-citizens who were unable to be deported could no longer be held indefinitely. Australia had previously declined to deport Sirul as he faces the death sentence here.
Australian media has reported that released detainees will be able to remain in the country with strict visa conditions attached, potentially including monitoring requirements.
Yesterday, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution said that Sirul’s extradition process can only begin if his death penalty is commuted, a feasible possibility due to Parliament’s passing of a bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty.
Following the abolishment, prisoners on death row could apply for a review of their death sentences 90 days from September 12 this year. As such, the last day for Sirul to file an application to the Federal Court for a review of his death sentence is December 11.
Nevertheless, the Federal Court has the authority to prolong the 90-day deadline if it finds valid grounds to warrant an extension.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s legal representative, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, previously told Scoop that Sirul’s release is “no cause for concern” for the ex-Barisan Nasional chairman.
Shafee said that Najib’s close associate, Abdul Razak Baginda, who was charged with abetting Altantuya’s murder but later acquitted without having his defence called, has nothing to do with Najib “in terms of the Altantuya matter.”
Najib is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence over graft convictions at Kajang Prison. – November 16, 2023