Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday said that his country has the right not to extradite Zakir Naik to India, since Naik claims he will not get a fair trial back home, according to a media report.
Naik, a 53-year-old preacher, reportedly left India in 2016and subsequently moved to largely Muslim Malaysia, where he was grantedpermanent residency.
“Zakir in general feels that he is not going to get afair trial (in India),” Mahathir was quoted as saying by The Starnewspaper.
He compared the situation to Australia refusing to extraditeformer police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who was sentenced to death in Malaysiain 2015 for killing a Mongolian model.
“We requested Australia to extradite Sirul and they areafraid we are going to send him to the gallows,” the prime minister said.Naik was booked by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) in 2016 based on a National Investigation Agency FIR that was registeredunder the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.