KL urged to stop caning criminals

KL urged to stop caning criminals

MALAYSIA: Malaysian lawyers on Tuesday joined Indonesia and rights groups in urging the government to revoke a law to whip illegal migrants.

Scores of illegal workers, mostly Indonesians, have been sentenced to jail terms in Malaysia and ordered to be caned after they were arrested since last month under an ongoing crackdown.

In a statement received on Tuesday, Malaysian Bar Council chairman Yeo Yang Poh urged the government to abolish caning altogether, describing it as "cruel and barbaric ... which has shown to produce long term and harmful psychological effects."

Malaysia has rejected calls by the Indonesian government and human rights groups to spare illegal migrants from whipping, saying it was a matter for the courts to decide.

A holdover of British colonial days, caning is a standard punishment for more than 40 crimes in Malaysia, ranging from sexual abuse to drug use. Administered with a thick rattan stick, it splits the skin and leaves scars.

Yeo said there was no justification for such punishment "let alone on the ones who have worked and toiled in our country and whose only offense is the absence of proper status."

"Even though our laws deny them legal status, let us not take away their human dignity," Yeo said in the statement. --AP