Malaysia abolishing death penalty might create a loophole for Australia to return Sirul

By now, y’all would have probably heard that Malaysia has officially abolished the mandatory death penalty. Hard to miss when literally everyone was talking about how it was such a progressive move…

But when we heard the news, the only question we had was: Can Malaysia now extradite criminals who are seeking asylum in other countries cos they’re facing the death penalty back home?

If that sounds like a pretty specific question, it’s probably cos we have a pretty specific person in mind. Y’all remember the Altantuya Shariibuu murder case, right? From the violent way she died to the alleged involvement of certain bigwigs like *cough* Najib, Rosmah and possibly Badawi *cough*, the whole thing had more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan movie.

Tho the biggest twist had to be when Sirul Azhar, one of the key perpertrators, fled to Australia before he was sentenced to hang by the Malaysian court.

And the only reason Sirul is still alive and kicking over there is cos Australian law forbids anyone from being extradited to a country where they could face a death sentence. Which honestly makes Sirul’s decision to head there all the more devious. But with Malaysia’s recent move in abolishing the mandatory death penalty, we’ve all got our tin foil hats on wondering if there might just be the tiniest 🤏🏼 loophole now.

So if you were wondering the same thing, the good news is that we’ve done the research and even got in touch with a couple of legal experts to weigh in! And here’s what we found.

Mandatory death penalties were scrapped but murder is still a capital offence

Y’all might have seen the words ‘death penalties’ and ‘mandatory death penalties’ used interchangeably over the last few days, but it’s really the mandatory one that’s been abolished. So the death penalty can still be given, but it’ll be on a case-by-case basis, meaning the judge will only hand it down if the the crime is Really Really Bad.

In other words, we’ve got 99 death penalty problems and all of them have to do with murder and terrorism and drug trafficking (and a couple of other specific offences).

So if the convicts don’t get death then what’s the alternate punishment? They get sent to prison ofc, with a life sentence of up to 40 years.

So now y’all can see why we called it a loophole and not a breakthrough 😪 Murder is still punishable by death, and the Sirul-Altantuya case happened donkey years ago. But here’s the thing, guys– there’s a catch!

Australia might have to send Sirul back if his punishment is reduced

Because these new laws might be current, but they actually apply retrospectively. Which means all convicts will now get the chance to appeal for a lesser punishment.

According to Azalina Othman, the Minister in charge of Law and Institutional Reform, convicts currently on death row will have to request reviews of their sentences, which will then determine if they remain on death row or head over to prison instead.

“A new Bill (RUU) will also be introduced to enable death sentences of lifelong imprisonment already imposed by courts to be reviewed by the Federal Court,” — Azalina Othman, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform)

So on the condition that Sirul’s case is reviewed and approved, Australia technically can’t hold him anymore and Sirul will have to face his charges in Malaysia. Now if you’re thinking that sounds like we’re shooting rainbows out of our behinds and this is just a waste of an article, it turns out the lawyers agree! There is grounds for a legal case.

Malaysian lawyers recommend reviewing Australian law and past cases

The general consensus is that it couuuuuuuld happen, but by a long shot– mostly because it’s only the mandatory death penalty that’s been abolished, and not the death penalty itself. This means there’s a lot of legal ambiguity and uncertainty, which makes the situation a tricky one to navigate.

Lawyer A, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes whether or not Sirul can be extradited to Malaysia depends on what the Australian law says.

“We really need to look at the law. Does it apply retrospectively or prospectively from the time he landed in Australia? If the law applies across the board irregardless of when, and if the death penalty is abolished, KL can apply right now,” — Lawyer A

On the other hand, Lawyer B, who also wishes to remain anonymous, suggested looking at past Australian cases, to see if there’s any precedence for a situation like this.

“This question (of Sirul’s extradition) is hard to answer. There’s a lot of work involved in finding a viable legal position. You need to look at Australian and New Zealand for precedence,” — Lawyer B

Well, well, well, if it isn’t Cilisos’ call to arms. As y’all know, there’s nothing we love more than doomscrolling the internet in search of a good story. And what we found was a case where…

Australia once returned a criminal to Singapore, but only after Singapore promised not to hang him

So back in 2002, a pretty gruesome crime took place at Orchard Towers in Singapore where a man and his girlfriend were murdered by their close friend. Long story short, the culprit, Michael McCrea, fled to Australia and ended up being detained there. The situation in Singapore is similar to Malaysia, where the punishment for murder is death. So when Singapore initially asked for McCrea to be returned, Australia pretty much went nope.

But Singapore really wanted him back, so they bargained with Australia, promising not to hang McCrea even if he was found guilty. And this turned out to be a good enough guarantee for Australia to approve the extradition process. The guy was sentenced to 24 years in prison, so it ended as well as it could.

Now whether or not the same could be applied to situation with Sirul…

Ashvinii Thinakaran, who’s currently serving as a Magistrate in Perak, tells us it really depends on what the Malaysian government is willing to do.

“It all depends on how good our country is in persuading Australia to extradite him. Usually the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Affairs Division and AGC would be the frontliner,” — Ashvinii Thinakaran, Magistrate in Teluk Intan, Perak

So on paper it sounds possible, but any more than that, we can’t say for certain. At the very least, getting rid of the mandatory death penalty seems to be a solid start in finally rounding up all our runaway criminals.