Adding that the issue needs careful handling as it involves another country’s laws and policies, he said Putrajaya had not had the opportunity to discuss the matter with the Australian government.

“According to the extradition treaty, the application documents need to state what form of punishment will be meted out to the criminal.”

Zahid said this in a written reply to Ramkarpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) who had asked if the government had any intention to extradite Sirul, a former police commando, after the ministry in March 2015 said it would start negotiations with the Australian government.

In Sirul’s case, the Federal Court found him and another former police commando, Azilah Hadri, guilty of the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu, and sentenced the two men to death.

Sirul fled to Australia before the Federal Court’s decision. The country’s laws bar the authorities from repatriating a person to another country to face the death penalty.

Altantuya, 28, an interpreter and mother of two, was killed in October 2006.

She was said to have been shot twice in the head before being wrapped in military-grade explosives and blown to pieces in a forest on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The motive for the crime remains unknown.