Sirul Azhar Umar, convicted of murder in Altantuya case, will be sent home if Malaysia abolishes death penalty

A bodyguard to former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has had his claim for asylum rejected by Australia, and will face deportation to his home country if it abolishes the death penalty.

Sirul Azhar Umar was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian woman who was a translator for, and lover of, one of Najib’s former associates, Razak Baginda.

Altantuya, who was pregnant, was abducted outside Baginda’s home and driven to a clearing on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where she was shot and her body blown up using military-grade explosives.

Sirul, a former commando, was convicted with another officer and sentenced to death. But Sirul fled to Australia while on release pending an appeal. Australia has not returned him because he is facing the death penalty.

Sirul insists he was ordered to carry out the killing and in a rare exclusive interview with the Guardian last year said he had participated in the abduction but not the murder. He has refused to say who ordered the killing and no motive has ever been established.

Sirul has been held in the high-security wing of Villawood detention centre outside Sydney for three years. He recently told the Malaysian website Malaysiakini he was willing to return to Malaysia and reveal the truth about what happened in the murder case if he was granted a full pardon.

He also told Malaysiakini he believed many in Malaysia now saw him as a political detainee.

Sirul had already been refused a temporary protection visa in Australia on character grounds but had been preparing an appeal of this decision. The appeal was refused, the ABC reported, by the administrative appeals tribunal, meaning Sirul will remain at Villawood until he can be returned to Malaysia.

Last year, Malaysia’s new government announced it would abolish the death penalty and stop any executions that were pending.