Report: Australian Immigration Department denies approving Sirul’s interview

PETALING JAYA: The Australian Immigration Department on Friday denied approving any tell-all interviews with former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar over the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

According to an Australian news portal, The Age, Sirul, who is currently being detained at the Villawood detention centre in Sydney, had told a local news portal that he was negotiating with Australian television stations for a politically explosive interview.

The Age quoted Immigration Department spokesman Peter Dutton as saying that the Department does not facilitate interviews within detention facilities for operational reasons. 

Dutton added that Sirul would need top-level approval to record a media interview in the maximum security unit where he has been held since being arrested in Queensland on Jan 20.   

According to the report, Dutton did not rule out the possibility of an interview in the future if proper application processes were met. 

It is reported that PAS would host a 15-minute teleconference on Monday between the Malaysian media and Sirul.

PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar said that Sirul had agreed to speak to the press openly regarding his conviction. 

Sirul had failed to appear in the Federal Court, which sentenced him and former chief inspector Azilah Hadri, 38, to death for the October 2006 murder of 26-year-old Altantuya.

The former police commando had fled to Australia to live with his relatives before he was sentenced to death by the Federal Court on Jan 13, and was later caught by the Interpol in Queensland. 

Sirul now faces an indefinite detention as Australia had said it would not allow him to be extradited unless the Malaysian Government agreed to not execute him upon his return.