Muslims convicted of Shariah offences should be placed in exclusive prisons instead of with inmates from the criminal system, said the Malaysian Association for Muslim Lawyers.<\/p>\n
Its president, Datuk Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar, argued that Shariah offences were largely victimless crimes and should not be treated similarly as those from the Penal Code.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of these cases are behavioural in nature, it would be unfair for them to be placed in a civil prison with drug and rape offenders,\u201d he was quoted as saying by the Berita Harian newspaper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be placed in a special prison that provides education and explanation on Islam to ensure rehabilitation\u201d<\/p>\n
He said this at a forum on efforts to increase punishments under the the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 yesterday.<\/p>\n
He also denied the proposal would lead to hudud, the Islamic penal law, and argued that the higher punishments were prevent jurisdiction shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe criminals would definitely choose a court that gives a lesser sentence, hence where is the justice for the victims in the relevant cases,\u201d Zainul said.<\/p>\n
It is not clear what he based this argument upon, as there are currently no overlaps between Shariah offences that are religious in nature and crimes under the Penal Code.<\/p>\n
However, such overlaps would exist if hudud is implemented in the country.<\/p>\n
Parliament is due to debate PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s private Bill to enhance Shariah punishments.<\/p>\n
It proposes to allow Shariah courts to impose maximum penalties of up to 30 years\u2019 jail, 100 strokes of the cane, and RM100,000 in fines.<\/p>\n
The limits now are three years\u2019 jail, six strokes, and RM5,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muslims convicted of Shariah offences should be placed in exclusive prisons instead of with inmates from the criminal system, said the Malaysian\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"bo_wartawan":[],"bo_jenis":[],"class_list":["post-55198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c48-news"],"better_featured_image":{"id":55199,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":723,"height":486,"file":"2017\/03\/zainul-rijal.jpg","filesize":160063,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"4","credit":"Picasa","camera":"ILCE-7M2","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1436872287","copyright":"","focal_length":"19","iso":"2000","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":55198,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/zainul-rijal.jpg"},"yoast_head":"\n