Extradition request to be challenged

The Star

PUTRAJAYA: Sirul Azhar Umar’s defence team will challenge any application by the Government to extradite him from Australia.

Lead counsel Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin said this was because asking for Sirul’s extradition would contradict Malaysia’s extradition treaty with Australia.

“We will definitely challenge it in a Malaysian court if the request is made by Malaysia’s authorities,” he told reporters here yesterday.

“However, it’s all hypothetical for now. It depends what the Govern­ment’s next move is and what my client’s instructions are,” he said.

Kamarul Hisham clarified that he was still representing Sirul although he had not been in contact with him and also was unsure about his whereabouts.

Sirul, 43, faces the gallows in Malaysia over the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He failed to appear in the Federal Court on Jan 13 when the court sentenced him and former chief inspector Azilah Hadri, 38, to death for the October 2006 murder of Altantuya, 26. The court then issued a warrant for Sirul’s arrest.

Sirul reportedly has been in Australia since November.

On Jan 17, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the Government was strongly considering extraditing Sirul should the Australian government refuse to repatriate him.

Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department stated that the country’s legislation did not allow a person to be surrendered to another country for an offence punishable by death, unless the country gave Australia an undertaking that the death penalty would not be carried out on the person.