COMMENT Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, the police operative who is now under detention in Australia, may have only a few options available for him.

Either he has to tell it all now, or he may soon face extradition; and thereafter, suffer in silence like his former colleague, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri, who is now awaiting the gallows.

There are not too many options for Sirul who, together with Azilah, were convicted for the brutal murder of Altantuya Shariibuu.

He alone holds the key to the brutal killing of the Mongolian model. This is on everyone’s mind - would he tell the story or not? What appears to be obvious cannot be verified unless Sirul is prepared to tell it all.

Extradition looks possible

Currently, Sirul may feel ‘safe’ in high security detention in Australia. However, it is unlikely that Australia will be able to keep him for a whole lifetime.

With the recent visit by the Australian Immigration and Border Protection Minister, Peter Dutton, and Malaysian Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi saying that the government is now mulling to commute Sirul’s death sentence to life imprisonment, it is obvious that Sirul may not be able to fight his repatriation to Malaysia.

Although the Australian laws would not allow someone facing a death sentence to be extradited, but now, an attempt to circumvent the laws appear not the least remote.

According to a report in Malaysiakini , the attorney-general has the discretion to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment. Once Sirul’s death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment, Sirul would be forced to return to the country.

As the proverbial saying goes, “As clever as the squirrel climbs the tree, in the end, it falls to the ground, too!”, Sirul’s ingenuity in escaping to Australia will meet a dead end for someone convicted of murder.

Although the death sentence would now be commuted to life imprisonment, this would, of course, be unfair to Azilah ( right ), who had gone into prison from the day the Federal Court sentenced both to the gallows, unless Azilah, too, receives the same treatment.

Nothing to lose

Sirul has nothing to lose if he decides to tell it all. After all, he is ‘technically’ on the gallows. The sword is hanging over his head day and night.

While he is still alive, and able to speak, Sirul has the moral obligation to tell the truth of what transpired behind the murder scene.

Here was one woman who was blasted using C4 explosives after she had been murdered point-blank, and no one seems to know who the real murderers are.

At best, the murder is linked to two ‘rogue’ police operatives who, together with their superior, DSP Musa Safri, were bodyguards to the then-deputy prime minister.

According to Sirul, the ‘real’ mastermind (s) behind the murder appears to be still at large. Even when Sirul is languishing in prison for the rest of his life, the same mastermind (s) would remain free like a bird.

Would Sirul regret, if he chooses not to tell the story now while still in Australia? If he did, he would have at least answered a lot of the questions that are now being asked.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.