20-11-2023 (KUALA LUMPUR) Dr. Shaariibuu Setev, the father of murdered Mongolian model-translator Altantuya Shaariibuu, has voiced his strong dissatisfaction with the Australian government’s decision to release former Malaysian policeman Sirul Azhar Umar from a detention center. The release of Sirul and 86 other detainees followed a High Court ruling that overturned indefinite detention.
Sirul, aged 52, was released from the Villawood immigration detention center in Sydney, where he had been held since 2015, on November 11th. In an interview with The Australian, Shaariibuu expressed his shock and disappointment that his daughter’s killer was now walking free in Australia. He criticized the Australian government for not informing him or the victim’s family about the release of Sirul.
Shaariibuu questioned the lack of consideration for the human rights of the victim’s family, stating, “We are right here, we are still alive and suffering. There is a Mongolian embassy in Australia, an Australian embassy in Mongolia. No one has contacted me.” He also demanded an apology from the Australian government.
Expressing his disbelief, Shaariibuu said, “I really wonder why Australia released a murderer. It makes me think that all the murderers of the world can go to Australia, spend time in immigration detention centers, and eventually be released and become free men.”
Altantuya, a mother of two, was brutally murdered in 2006. She was driven to a jungle in Selangor, shot twice in an execution-style killing, and then her body was destroyed with explosives. Sirul, a former bodyguard of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, claimed that he had abducted Altantuya under orders.
Sirul’s asylum request in Australia was rejected in 2019. In December of the same year, the Shah Alam High Court ordered Sirul, another former policeman Azilah Hadri, Najib’s former associate Abdul Razak Baginda, and the government to pay RM5 million in damages to Altantuya’s family. The lawsuit was filed by Shaariibuu, his wife Altantsetseg Sanjaa, and their two grandsons in June 2007, seeking RM100 million in compensation and exemplary damages.
