KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Putrajaya has the right to deport whoever they want, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed insisted today after news broke that an Al-Jazeera journalist was deported from Malaysia three months ago for reporting on the 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu in Malaysia.
Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed added that the reporter was deported in June, making it an “old issue”.
“She was deported in June. It’s an old issue. The government reserves the right to basically ask anybody to leave the country.
“It happened in June, why you asking the question now?” he said on the sidelines of the International Maritime Bureau International Meeting on Global Piracy, Armed Robbery and Maritime Security today.
Last Wednesday, the Al Jazeera news network resurrected the controversial brutal murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu that many have accused the Malaysian government of covering up the past nine years.
The documentary featured an interview with an unidentified Australian said to be a relative of Sirul Azhar Umar, one of two elite police commandos who was convicted of killing the Mongolian woman.
The Australian kin was reported saying Sirul had claimed the person to have shot Altantuya was her former married lover Abdul Razak Baginda, who was also said to be a former political aide to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Hosted by Australian Mary Ann Jolley, the allegations of attempts by Putrajaya to cover up investigations into the case appear to be predicated on her deportation while in the midst of preparing the particular episode.
“It obviously shows the sensitivity of the story, and I’ve obviously come under the spotlight,” Jolley said in a self-recorded clip for the segment, after she was stopped from entering Malaysia following a meeting with Setev Shaariibuu, Altantuya’s father, in Hong Kong for the programme.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said earlier today that Al-Jazeera will be investigated over the documentary and also for purportedly planting “new evidence” into a case that had already been settled in the Federal Court.
Sirul and Azilah Hadri, another former police commando, were both sentenced to death in January this year for the 2006 murder after the Federal Court reversed their previous acquittal.
Sirul was a no-show during the sentencing, however, and it was later revealed that he had fled to Australia to live with his kin.
He is currently under detention in Sydney pursuant to Malaysia’s request for extradition, which Australia cannot legally comply with owing to the country’s laws against capital punishment.
