KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — Former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who was convicted and given the death sentence in Malaysia for murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu, hopes her family can forgive him.

In an interview with broadcaster Al Jazeera aired on its 101 East programme today, Sirul tendered an apology to the Mongolian nation’s family even as he said he was not responsible for the murder despite being found guilty by Malaysia’s highest court back in 2016.

Sirul, who is now in Australia after fleeing Malaysia to escape the Federal Court decision, also said he hopes to restart his life there as he is not a “bad person”.

He added that it would be “unsafe” for him to his home country.

He claimed that he was made a scapegoat and caught in a political game in which he admitted receiving RM1 million while in Australia from an unnamed source to “shut his mouth”.

Sirul also made several serious unverified allegations against a few prominent personalities that could not be independently verified.

Sirul was released from the Australia’s detention centre last week after spending almost a decade inside.

His release, alongside 91 others, was seen by human rights lawyers as a landmark ruling that ended a two-decade immigration law that allowed the Australian authorities to detain foreign citizens indefinitely who cannot be deported back.

The Australian government has a policy against deporting anyone to a country where they would face the death penalty.

Sirul was the bodyguard of former Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, together with fellow Special Action Unit commando Azilah Hadri.

Both were sentenced to death in 2009 for the October 2006 murder of Altantuya in a gruesome case that garnered national interest and fuelled political conspiracy theories that remain popular to this day.

In 2007, Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev and his wife Altantsetseg Sanjaa, as well as two of their grandsons Mungunshagai Bayarjargal and Altanshagai Munkhtulga filed a RM100 million lawsuit against Azilah and Sirul.

Sirul said that he loves Australia from the bottom of his heart and hope the people there will give him a second chance to live.