Canadian says prison 'tolerable'

Canadian says prison 'tolerable'

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A Canadian journalist jailed for contempt of court in Malaysia has said that prison conditions are "tolerable", a report said on Saturday.

Canadian barrister Paul Fraser told the New Straits Times that a group of lawyers visited Murray Hiebert at the Sungai Buloh prison on a personal basis, and that legal aspects of his case were not discussed.

The group was also given a tour of facilities at the prison outside the Malaysian capital, the newspaper added.

Hiebert, 50, a correspondent with the Hong Kong-based magazine Far Eastern Economic Review, began serving a six-week term on Sept. 11 after he lost an appeal and the court refused to return his passport.

He was found guilty by the High Court in May 1997 over an article headlined See you in court which discussed the merits of a suit filed by the wife of a Court of Appeal judge against the International School of Kuala Lumpur for dropping her son from its debating team.