Malaysian state considers public caning
The chairman of the Committee on Islamic Development in Kelantan, a rural state in the northeast of Peninsular Malaysia, voiced his support for beating adulterers in public. Currently, people found guilty of adultery are subject to a fine, a maximum jail term of three years, and “six strokes of the cane.” According to Mohd Nassuruddin Daud, the latter punishment should be held in public.
Kelantan deputy minister Amar Nik Abdullah seconded the idea and proposed that the country’s fields and stadiums might be used as venues for people found guilty of adultery or also for consuming alcohol. The beatings might take place after Friday prayers.
Furthermore, the Malaysian Immigration Department wants to cane employers found guilty of hiring illegal immigrants.
The proposals came after Malaysia’s attorney general proposed to use caning on people found guilty of violating Malaysia’s Official Secrets Act under which officials can declare any document or information to be secret, restricted or classified.
Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali wants to expand the act to raise the penalties for breaking secrecy laws to life imprisonment, versus the current one-to-seven years in prison, and to cover journalists and editors who decline to disclose sources. But another of his proposals is to include caning as an additional punishment.
The government has said it suspects secret documents related to scandal-ridden investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad were leaked.
Malaysia already administers caning as punishment to thousands of people a year who are convicted of crimes such as drug trafficking, rape, robbery and firearms possession, but within the confines of prisons.
Domestic human-rights groups and others deplore the practice, in which prisoners are whipped with a rattan stick, as “inhumane” and “tarnishing the image of Islam.”
The chairman of the Committee on Islamic Development in Kelantan, a rural state in the northeast of Peninsular Malaysia, voiced his support for beating adulterers in public. Currently, people found guilty of adultery are subject to a fine, a maximum jail term of three years, and “six strokes of the cane.” According to Mohd Nassuruddin Daud, the latter punishment should be held in public. Kelantan deputy minister Amar Nik Abdullah seconded the idea and proposed that the country’s fields and stadiums might be used as venues for people found guilty of adultery or also for consuming alcohol. The beatings might...
The chairman of the Committee on Islamic Development in Kelantan, a rural state in the northeast of Peninsular Malaysia, voiced his support for beating adulterers in public. Currently, people found guilty of adultery are subject to a fine, a maximum jail term of three years, and “six strokes of the cane.” According to Mohd Nassuruddin Daud, the latter punishment should be held in public.
Kelantan deputy minister Amar Nik Abdullah seconded the idea and proposed that the country’s fields and stadiums might be used as venues for people found guilty of adultery or also for consuming alcohol. The beatings might take place after Friday prayers.
Furthermore, the Malaysian Immigration Department wants to cane employers found guilty of hiring illegal immigrants.
The proposals came after Malaysia’s attorney general proposed to use caning on people found guilty of violating Malaysia’s Official Secrets Act under which officials can declare any document or information to be secret, restricted or classified.
Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali wants to expand the act to raise the penalties for breaking secrecy laws to life imprisonment, versus the current one-to-seven years in prison, and to cover journalists and editors who decline to disclose sources. But another of his proposals is to include caning as an additional punishment.
The government has said it suspects secret documents related to scandal-ridden investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad were leaked.
Malaysia already administers caning as punishment to thousands of people a year who are convicted of crimes such as drug trafficking, rape, robbery and firearms possession, but within the confines of prisons.
Domestic human-rights groups and others deplore the practice, in which prisoners are whipped with a rattan stick, as “inhumane” and “tarnishing the image of Islam.”
