THE Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET) has called on Malaysia to ensure that whipping of prisoners is administered in the manner and standards practiced by the Islamic Syariah Criminal Procedure which is more humane and less likely to cause grievous bodily harm, permanent damage or even death.
This is in the wake of a Zaidi Abd Hamid, 49, who died after being whipped 12 times forces a re-look at such criminal punishment.
“Zaidi had had his death sentence revised by the Federal Court on Sept 10 to 33 years in prison along with 12 strokes of the cane following the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia,” MADPET’s co-founder Charles Hector pointed out in a statement,
“He died about a month after the caning/whipping. His death certificate sighted by Malaysiakini listed the cause of death as ‘septic sequelae to blunt force trauma to the gluteal region’.
“A butt bruise or gluteal contusion is an injury to the gluteal muscles of the buttocks caused by damage to muscle fibres and blood vessels, resulting in bleeding under the skin (Malaysiakini, 9 October 2024).”
On the contrary, MADPET contended that in the Syariah enactment, the convict need not strip or expose his naked buttocks. In fact, the Syariah enactment both in Terengganu and Selangor states that “the offender shall wear clothes according to Hukum Syarak”.
“With Islam as the official religion of the Federation, it is obviously not right for the state to require a man to be stripped with his naked butt region exposed when he is whipped,” justified Hector.
“What about modesty, human dignity and the Islamic requirement of covering one’s aurat (the area between the navel and the knees for men)?”
Many people are being made to suffer this cruel, inhumane and life-threatening punishment of whipping in Malaysia annually, according to MADPET.
“Based on Prisons Department records, 47,914 foreigners were found to have violated the Immigration Act from 2002 to 2008. Of these, 34,923 were caned or whipped.
In 2010, Amnesty International released a report saying some 10,000 prisoners and 6,000 refugees were being caned each year in Malaysia as punishment for more than 60 crimes, including drug-related and sexual offences as well as migration violations.
“We do not have the current statistics but 5,000 or more are still being whipped annually,” estimated Hector. “Only about 15 countries in the world still retain whipping as a punishment for crimes, and embarrassingly, Malaysia is one of them.”
Many countries have long abolished whipping as a punishment from their statutes such as India and the UK pursuant to the Indian Abolition of Whipping Act 1955 and the Criminal Justice Act 1948 respectively.
Even Saudi Arabia had reportedly abolished flogging as a form of punishment in April 2020. It was part of reforms pushed by King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and his son who is the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). – Oct 13, 2024
