‘Sirul is not needed to reopen case’
Ramkarpal: Ex-cop’s statement would be an advantage but it’s not the only trump card
GEORGE TOWN: The witness statement of convicted killer and former police officer Sirul Azhar Umar should be obtained on the terms of Malaysian authorities, and not with a full pardon, a DAP MP said.
Ramkarpal Singh said Sirul’s statement in the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu would be an added advantage, but not the only “trump card”.
“A request for a full pardon should be ruled out as it’s an insult to the memory of Altantuya,” he said.
Ramkarpal, who is Bukit Gelugor MP and a lawyer, was commenting on Sirul’s request for a full pardon to reveal it all in the latter’s interview with an online portal.
Ramkarpal said he believed that the person or persons who ordered Altantuya’s murder is “already known” from the investigations that have been carried out.
“This is because it is too crucial an aspect of the case to have been missed out, as such this is further reason to reopen the case,” he said.
He said that even if the motive of the murder has not been established, the case could still be probed through further investigation or a Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Ramkarpal had earlier said that Sirul’s witness statement could be obtained if the authorities were willing to commute Sirul’s death sentence to life, so as to extradite him from Australia.
“If Sirul is extradited, he should serve the full life sentence in Malaysia as he must receive the retribution for the heinous crime committed,” he said.
“Looks like Sirul is having a good life at the detention centre now, where he is free to give interviews. It is baffling.”
Sirul is currently at a detention centre in Australia, where he is hoping to get asylum.
In 2009, Sirul and his accomplice Azilah Hadri were convicted of murdering Altantuya and were sentenced to death.
The Court of Appeal overturned the sentence in 2013 but the Federal Court upheld the death sentence upon the prosecution’s appeal in 2015.
Sirul fled to Australia and was detained by the Australian Immigration after Interpol issued a red notice on him.
Azilah is awaiting a hearing on his plea for clemency.
Altantuya, 28, was believed to have been shot dead before her body was blown to bits with explosives at a secondary forest near the Subang Dam in Puncak Alam, Shah Alam, in 2006.
Last Wednesday, Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga wrote to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to ask him to help bring justice in the case of Altantuya.
PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim suggested that Sirul be brought back to Malaysia for a fresh trial.