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The father of a pregnant woman murdered by a Malaysian hitman has spoken of his dismay after learning the killer had been released in Australia following the High Court’s controversial ruling on immigration detention.
Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, a mother of two, died in 2006 when she was driven to a forest on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and shot twice in the head by hitman Sirul Azhar Umar while she begged for mercy.
Sirul, who had been a bodyguard to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, then used military explosives to blow up his body.
Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, a mother of two, died in 2006 when she was driven to a forest on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and shot twice in the head.
Hitman Sirul Azhar Umar (left) killed Shaariibuu Setev’s daughter (right)
Rumors have long swirled in Malaysia that Umar was ordered to kill Altantuya to prevent her from revealing alleged illegal payments made in connection with a $2 billion submarine deal she worked on as a translator.
The theory has never been proven and the identity of who paid Sirul to eliminate Altantuya remains unknown.
He fled Malaysia in January 2015 for Australia, where he was arrested and detained indefinitely at the Villawood immigration detention center in Sydney.
Sirul, now aged in his 50s, could not be extradited to Malaysia because he would have faced the death penalty.
But now, almost nine years later, Sirul is free and now roaming the streets of Canberra following the High Court’s decision to release up to 92 hardened foreign criminals held in immigration detention.
Altantuya’s father, Shaariibuu Setev, a Mongolian film professor, was not informed that his daughter’s killer had been released and only found out when he was approached by Australian weekend.
Sirul refused to say who he worked for when he killed Altantuya (photo)
Sirul is free and now roaming the streets of Canberra following the High Court’s decision to release up to 92 hardened foreign criminals held in immigration detention.
He said he was “so disappointed with Australia”.
“I never imagined Australia would release him,” he added.
Professor Shaariibuu said Australian authorities had not contacted him to let him know his daughter’s killer would be released.
“Where are the human rights for the victim’s family? We are here, we are still alive and we are suffering,” he said.
“I really wonder why Australia is releasing a murderer. This makes me think that all the murderers in the world can go to Australia, spend time in immigration detention and eventually be released and become free men.
Sirul refused to say who he was working for when he killed Altantuya, saying only that he was on the orders of “important people.”
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Razak Najib has denied ever meeting Altantuya. In 2018, he said: “I swore in a mosque in the name of Allah that I had nothing to do with this matter.
“I still maintain that I knew she had died only four, five days after she passed away…that was the first time I had heard of her. There is no proof that I knew her.
The identity of who paid Sirul to eliminate Altantuya (photo) remains unknown.
A crucifix stands where Altantuya was killed
After leaving Villawood, Sirul traveled to Canberra where he lives with his son, his lawyer William Levingston said.
He had already applied for asylum in Australia in 2019, but his request was refused.
The High Court ruled last Wednesday that Australia’s indefinite detention system was unlawful, freeing 84 asylum seekers, while 340 of them are still awaiting decisions.
Those released include a pedophile who raped a 10-year-old boy in Sydney’s west and a hitman who blew up a pregnant woman in Malaysia.
These criminals served prison sentences for their crimes, but were unable to be deported for various reasons beyond the government’s control.
Labor fiercely opposed their release, and Home Secretary Clare O’Neil said as a mother herself: “If she had anything in her power to keep these people in detention, ( she) absolutely would.”
Labor hastily passed legislation through both houses of parliament, backing coalition amendments that hit released asylum seekers with even tougher rules.
The new rules include the wearing of ankle monitoring bracelets, strict curfews, a ban on going within 150 meters of day care centers and mandatory minimum sentences of one year for violating the rules.
Documents filed in the Senate show that 18 of the foreigners detained indefinitely were from Afghanistan.
A total of 17 of them came from Iran, 10 arrived in Australia from Sudan, while nine were listed as “stateless”, meaning they have no nation to return to.
Other countries topping the list were South Sudan, Eritrea and Sri Lanka, while one asylum seeker was from New Zealand.
The new information also reveals that 27 of the 92 released detainees were referred to immigration ministers due to the seriousness of their offenses – and explains why their visas were canceled on morality grounds.
Some of the individuals in each category committed their crimes overseas, while others took place in Australia.
The new documents reveal that 21 former detainees were referred to the Immigration Minister over several years under the category of “national security, cybercrime, serious and high-profile organized crime or gang-related crime.”
More than 50 percent of former detainees have been detained for more than five years. Six of them have been detained on immigration charges for more than a decade.