The father of a pregnant woman who was murdered by a Malaysian hitman has spoken of his dismay after learning the killer has been freed in after the High Court’s controversial ruling on immigration detention.
Mongolian mother-of-two Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, 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 as she begged for mercy.
Sirul, who who had been a bodyguard for former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, then used military explosives to blow up her body.
Mongolian mother-of-two Altantuya Shaariibuu, 28, 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 (right) daughter
There have long been rumours in Malaysia that Umar was ordered to kill Altantuya to stop her revealing alleged illegal payments made in relation to a $2billion submarine deal on which she worked as a translator.
The theory has never been proven and the identity of who paid Sirul to take out Altantuya remains unknown.
He fled Malaysia in January 2015 for , where he was arrested and detained indefinitely at Villawood immigration detention centre in Sydney.
Sirul, who is now aged in his 50s, could not be extradited back to Malaysia as he would have faced the death penalty.
But now, nearly nine years later, Sirul has walked free and is now roaming the streets of Canberra following the High Court decision to free as many as 92 hardened foreign criminals being held in immigration detention.
Altantuya’s father Shaariibuu Setev, a Mongolian film professor, was not informed that his daughter’s killer had been freed and only found out when approached by The Weekend n.
Sirul has refused to say who he was working for when he killed Altantuya (pictured)
Sirul has walked free and is now roaming the streets of Canberra following the High Court decision to free as many as 92 hardened foreign criminals being held in immigration detention
He said he was ‘so disappointed in ‘.
‘I never imagined would release him,’ he added.
Professor Shaariibuu said n officials had not contacted him to let him know his daughter’s killer would be freed.
‘Where is the human rights for the victim’s family? We are right here, we are still alive and suffering,’ he said.
‘I really wonder why releases a murderer. It makes me think all the murderers of the world can go to , spend time in immigration detention and eventually be released and become free men.’
Sirul has refused to say who he was working for when he killed Altantuya, only saying he was on the orders of ‘important people’.
Former Malaysian prime minister Razak Najib has denied ever meeting Altantuya. In 2018 he said: ‘I’m on record to have sworn in a mosque in the name of Allah that I had nothing to do with the case.
‘I still maintain that I only knew she died four, five days after the death … that was the first time I heard about her. There is no evidence to show I ever knew her.’
The identity of who paid Sirul to take out Altantuya (pictured) remains unknown
A crucifix lies at the spot where Altantuya was killed
After walking free from Villawood, Sirul headed to Canberra where he is living with his son, his lawyer William Levingston said.
He previously applied for asylum in in 2019 but this was denied.
The High Court last Wednesday ruled that ‘s system of indefinite detention was unlawful, freeing 84 asylum seekers, with decisions still pending on up to 340.
Those released include a paedophile who raped a 10-year-old boy in Sydney’s west and a hitman who blew up a pregnant woman in Malaysia.
These criminals have completed jail sentences for their crimes, but could not be deported for various reasons beyond the Government’s control.
Labor stridently opposed their release from detention, and Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said as a mother herself: ‘If there was anything in [her] power to keep these people in detention, [she] would absolutely do it’.
Labor rushed legislation through both houses of Parliament, backing Coalition amendments that hit those released asylum seekers with even tougher rules.
New rules include wearing ankle monitoring bracelets, strict curfews, bans from going within 150m of childcare centres and mandatory minimum sentences of one year should the rules be breached.
Documents tabled in the Senate show that 18 of the foreigners who were being held in indefinite detention came from Afghanistan.
A total of 17 came from Iran, 10 made it to from Sudan, while nine were listed as being ‘stateless’ – meaning they have no nation to return to.
Other countries high on the list were South Sudan, Eritrea and Sri Lanka – while one asylum seeker was originally from New Zealand.
The new information also reveals that 27 of the 92 detainees freed were referred to immigration ministers because of the severity of their offending – and explains why they had their visas cancelled on character grounds.
Some of those in each category committed their crimes overseas, while some of the offending took place in .
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 organised or gang related’.
More than 50 per cent of the former detainees have been held for more than five years. Six have been immigration detention for more than a decade.