KUALA LUMPUR: Convicted murderer Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar is in no position to bargain over the predicament that he finds himself in and should be deported back to the country.
Bukit Gelugor member of parliament Ramkarpal Singh said there was no reason for Australia to continue detaining him. He said Sirul should be sent back to Malaysia to serve out his sentence, when his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
“Sirul can be deported to Malaysia if the death penalty is abolished or if his current death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment,” he said.
“I am confident that one of the above will happen in the near future and urge the Australian authorities to deport him thereafter to serve his sentence in Malaysia.
“He must give his full cooperation to the authorities in investigations as to who ordered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu’s murder.”
Sirul and fellow Special Action Unit member Azilah Hadri were convicted of Altantuya’s murder by the Federal Court in January 2015 and sentenced to death.
Sirul, however, had already escaped to Australia and is currently held at an immigration detention centre there.
Azilah is waiting for a hearing on his plea for clemency.
Altantuya was said to have been involved in a sexual tryst with former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Razak was acquitted of abetting the murder in 2008 without his defence being called.
Ramkarpal said justice must be served in Altantuya’s case and Australia ought to play its part in ensuring that it was achieved by deporting Sirul back to the country.