KOTA BARU – The public caning proposed by the Kelantan government, if it is to be imposed, will be less harsh than the type of caning carried out for civil cases, said Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah.
He also said that the Syariah law was more into prevention and education rather than to just punish the offender as practised in the civil law.
“As one of the main aspects of Syariah laws, public caning is to give insights to would-be offenders of what punishment awaits them if they commit similar offences.
“And unlike the present criminal procedure code, Syariah laws were meant to be preventive rather than offensive,” he said when contacted here yesterday.
Mohd Amar, who is the state’s Hudud Technical Committee chairman, said that in response to suggestions by PAS lawmakers to implement public flogging for Syariah law offenders.
He said there were suggestions that apart from it being carried out at mosques, public flogging could also be done at stadiums, open football or school fields or even in front of Syariah courts.
Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act states that all offences that include illicit sex, alcohol and others related to the laws, are punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding three years or with any fine exceeding five thousand ringgit or with whipping exceeding six strokes or with any combination thereof.
Presently, offenders are whipped in the Syariah court chambers in front of witnesses.-thestaronline
