Following a meeting with Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop revealed that no application has been received to extradite the man convicted of murdering Mongolian translator/model Altantuya Shaariibuu, Sirul Azhar Umar.
In June, British newspaper The Guardian erroneously reported that a deal had been struck by the two, and that Sirul would return to Malaysia within the month.
Today, Bishop confirmed that he was still being held at an Australia Immigration detention facility, and that no formal request of extradition had been filed, as Mahathir himself clarified recently.
Authorities there have been reticent to repatriate Sirul, as he faces the death penalty here for the crime.
Her murder in 2006 has become a source of local and international intrigue, with even the Mongolian government stepping in to ask that Prime Minister Mahathir reopen the case.
International press reports state that a pregnant Altantuya was the alleged lover of former Prime Minister Najib’s “close confidant” Abdul Razak Baginda. In the weeks leading up to her death, she had been demanding money from Baginda to compensate for her work in brokering a deal to buy French submarines, of which Baginda is said to have benefited in the multi-millions via kickbacks.
Unable to contact Baginda directly after he refused to take her calls, she went to his house in October 2006. Minutes later, a van arrived at the scene, abducting the model and ultimately taking her to a Subang forest, where she was shot twice with a semi-automatic weapon.
Her lifeless body was wrapped in military-grade explosives, and she was unceremoniously blown up.
Sirul and another fellow bodyguard, Azila Hadri, were charged, tried and found guilty of the murder. They were sentenced to death in 2009, yet Sirul has maintained his innocence, saying he was only carrying out orders from superiors and that he was merely the driver to the scene of the crime.
Out on bail, Sirul fled to Australia in 2014, managing to gain access to a country that has issues letting in muddy boots, but apparently accepts convicted murderers with relatively open arms.
Hiding out in Queensland, authorities then picked him up after Interpol issued a red alert. He’s been sitting in a Sydney detention center ever since.
Without stating the unknown but writing the obvious, it is safe to assume that Sirul knows quite a bit about what happened in the Mongolian’s tragic death, and his return to Malaysia has been a key point of interest for those seeking answers in a case where no motive in the murder was ever established.
Dun dun.
