A man has asked for protection in custody after being charged with murdering a young woman with reported links to Pol Pot in Melbourne 30 years ago.

Meth Mean, who is in solitary confinement, says he has received threats after being extradited from Perth for the murder of 27-year-old Springvale woman Ranny Yun in 1987.

Ms Yun was reportedly a member of Cambodia’s communist Khmer Rouge regime under dictator Pol Pot.

At the time of her death, widespread media reports suggested she had been responsible for the deaths of several people before escaping to Australia in the mid-1980s.

Police at the time claimed she may have been killed due to her links with illegal gambling and loan sharking at Springvale or as a revenge murder by a fellow Cambodian.

Mean faced an extradition hearing at Perth Magistrates Court on Friday after Victorian police officers travelled to Western Australia to interview him.

He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday assisted by an interpreter, believed to be Cambodian, asking for protection in custody because he had received threats.

His lawyer told the court Mean was in custody for the first time, was hard of hearing, suffered from diabetes and required ongoing medication.

“He’s currently in a solitary cell,” his lawyer told the court.

“He does require protection; he’s been the subject of threats.”

The court was also told Mean was “terribly upset” and may have “situational depression”, especially as he was so far from family support in Perth.

Mean held his hands in a prayer position and waved to a seemingly invisible person across the room before he was escorted from the court.

He did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to reappear before the court again on March 13 for a committal mention.

-AAP