KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 28 — Former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar is being watched by Australian authorities where he is currently living after fleeing Malaysia where he faces a death sentence for the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The 51-year-old is required to wear an electronic monitoring device (EMD) that enables Australian authorities to track his location after he and 139 other detainees were released from an immigration detention centre on November 8, local news portal Free Malaysia Today reported this morning.
The news portal cited an unnamed Australian Border Force spokesman saying the EMD and a curfew is meant to restrict the movements of those previously detained under the country’s Migration Act and Migration Regulations.
According to the news report, those whose movements are curtailed are those who were previously convicted of serious crimes such as murder, rape, and paedophilia.
Australian media recently reported that its government is contemplating using terrorism laws for some of the most violent offenders among those who have been released from detention.
Sirul was a former bodyguard of former Malaysian prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who has been sentenced to death in Malaysia for the murder of Altantuya in 2006, alongside another former police commando, Azilah Hadri.
Sirul ran away to Australia in 2015 which has laws that prohibits it from sending back anyone within its borders who face the death penalty in their home country.
He remains wanted in Malaysia, which recently saw an amendment to its laws that now gives judges the discretion to commute the mandatory death sentence to lifetime imprisonment.
Azilah is currently held in Kajang Prison, Selangor and is one of 1,000 inmates on death row seeking a review of their sentences.
