A year after the conviction of two elite police force members of murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu, and five months after her father amended the statement of claim, it remains uncertain whether the documents on the RM100-million civil suit have reached Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar in Australia.

This is because the Malaysian High Commission in Australia has yet to inform the law firm of Karpal Singh & Co or lawyer Ram Karpal on whether it has delivered the amended statement of claim to Sirul.

Sirul is being held at the Villawood Immigration Detention centre near Sydney.

The amended statement of claim by Mongolian Shaariibuu Setev was filed following the conviction of Sirul and former Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri ( photo ) for murdering Altantuya at a jungle clearing atop a hill in Puncak Alam between 10pm and 1am on July 18 and 19, 2006.

The two, who were part of the elite police Special Action Unit, were found guilty by the Federal Court on Jan 13 last year.

After a case management at the Shah Alam High Court today, Ram said after the documents were handed to the Foreign Ministry in August last year, it was given to the Malaysian High Commission in early September for it to be delivered to Sirul.

“We have written to the Malaysian High Commission last month to remind them but there is no reply. We do not know what is happening.

“The court today has also promised to do their part to find out what is happening,” he told Malaysiakini .

Ram said the next case management has been fixed on Feb 24 before senior assistant registrar Azlinda Ahmad Shariff.

Malaysia's high commission is situated in Canberra and its consulate general offices are in Perth and Melbourne.

Setev and Altantuya's two children had filed the RM100-million suit in 2008, naming Azilah, Sirul, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda and the government as defendants.

Azilah and Sirul were convicted by a five-member Federal Court bench led by Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria.

As Sirul was not present during judgment day, the police issued a red notice through Interpol and he was arrested by the Australian authorities in Brisbane and brought to Villawood where he is being detained till today.

Problem with extraditing Sirul

His lawyers Kamarul Hisham Kamaruddin and Hasnal Rezua Merican indicated they did not receive any instruction to represent him in the civil case, and Azilah also did not give similar instructions to Hazman Ahmad, resulting in them to discharge from the case.

Previously it was reported that Shah Alam High Court judge Suraya Othman had instructed Setev's lawyer to pass the documents to the court for it to be sealed and then sent to the Foreign Ministry for it to be delivered to the Malaysian High Commission there.

This was because the lawyers might not have the jurisdiction to hand over the documents in Australia directly.

It was reported last month that Kamarul told reporters that Sirul was trying to obtain a ' protection visa ' for him to be released from detention.

The Malaysian authorities have a problem with extraditing Sirul as Australia does not allow the deportation of prisoners facing the death penalty.