Malaysia to pursue return of High Court-released hitman

Malaysia will seek the extradition of freed convicted murderer Sirul Azhar Umar, though under Australian law it must first take the death penalty off the table.

Sirul Azhar Umar while in detention in Australia.

Malaysia will seek the return of a former elite police bodyguard and convicted murderer freed from Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre last week, the country’s top policeman has said.

Sirul Azhar Umar was released after nine years of detention on the orders of the High Court, which last week ruled that it was unconstitutional to indefinitely detain those who could not be deported back to their home countries.

The now 50-year-old was ­arrested in Australia in early 2015 after being convicted and sentenced to death in absentia by a Malaysian court, along with a second police guard, Azilah Hadri, for the politically charged 2006 murder of 28-year-old Mongolian model and translator Altantuya Shaaribuu.

Under Australia law, Sirul could not be extradited unless the Malaysian government agreed to take the death penalty off the table, which previous administrations were unwilling to do.

He was also refused an Australian protection visa, despite insisting he had acted under orders in committing the crime and had subsequently been made a fall-guy for powerful people who wanted Shaaribuu dead.

Royal Malaysian Police chief Razarudin Husain insisted late on Sunday that there was no ­impediment to Sirul’s return and police would be discussing the matter with Malaysia’s Attorney-General.

The Malaysian government abolished mandatory death sentencing, though not the death penalty, in July and invited all death row prisoners to apply to have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

It has also declared a moratorium on executions.

“The application for repatriation needs to be (made by) the Attorney-General’s Chambers because this involves the Malaysian and Australian governments,” Inspector General Razarudin said.

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. Picture: AFP

“We will discuss the matter with the relevant parties because he has already been sentenced.”

Inspector General Razarudin said Malaysian police stationed at the high commission in Canberra would seek to interview Sirul now that he was free.

The former policeman is believed to be staying with his son, Shukri Azam Bin Sirul Azhar, in Canberra while his co-accused Azilah, who has been on Malaysia’s death row since their conviction, is awaiting the outcome of his application for clemency.

The two men were acquitted on appeal of Shaaribuu’s murder in 2009 but reconvicted in 2014 of abducting her from outside the home of her former lover, Razak Abdul Baginda, fatally shooting her in a forest on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and blowing up her body with military-grade explosives.

Baginda was a close confidant of Najib Razak, the then defence minister who served as prime minister from 2009 to 2018, and a key mediator in the corruption-tainted $US2bn Scorpene submarine deal for which he was later charged with accepting kickbacks.

It has long been speculated that Shaaribuu was killed for threatening to reveal details of bribes paid to senior Malaysian officials by French shipbuilder DCNS during negotiations in which she occasionally acted as translator.

Sirul unsuccessfully sought a sentence moratorium for revealing who ordered Shaaribuu’s murder, while in 2019 Azilah alleged from prison that the order came from Razak and Baginda, an allegation both men have strenuously denied.

Najib was jailed last year for his role in the misappropriation of more than $US4.5bn from the 1MDB state development fund he set up as prime minister.