Straits Times, Singapore, 12 December 2002

Terengganu delays enforcing Islamic law

TERENGGANU - Terengganu has no immediate plans to enforce Islamic laws passed by the State Assembly in July.

Mentri Besar [State Premier] Abdul Hadi Awang said the state government would instead send a delegation to some West Asian countries, including Saudi Arabia, to study the implementation of such laws.

'We will send a committee led by State Education, Dakwah and Syariah Implementation Committee chairman Datuk Harun Taib,' he said yesterday.

The visit would give the state a better idea on how to go about implementing the legislation, including streamlining the enactment if necessary, he said.

However, he denied that the government was not yet ready to implement the laws.

He said the state had run training courses for Syariah judges in preparation for implementation of the enactment.

Asked how soon after the committee's visit to West Asian countries the enactment would be enforced, he said: 'That is up to the committee...no date has been set for hudud implementation.'

Among the six offences listed under hudud law are illicit sex, for which offenders can be stoned to death; and theft, the punishment for which is amputation of a hand.

Robbery and apostasy are both punishable by death while those who consume liquor or other intoxicating drinks may be given at least 40 lashes of the cane. --Bernama

The Star, Kuala Lumpur, 20 December 2002

Alien jailed for identity fraud

SEREMBAN: An Indian national, who registered his workshop using an identity card which was reported missing, was jailed a total of seven months and ordered to be whipped three times.

Magistrate Nazri Ismail sentenced Johnson Jesudass, 33, from Tamilnadu, India, to four months' jail and be given three strokes of the rotan under Section 6(3) of the Immigration Act for staying illegally in the country.

Jesudass was said to have operated the workshop for almost five years and had employed 14 Malaysians as mechanics and assistants.

The accused was sentenced to another three months' jail for a second offence under Section 25(1)E of National Registration Act for having an identity card belonging to one Raju Suppiah of Perak.

The court ordered both sentences to run concurrently from the date of arrest on Nov 29.

The accused was not represented while Chief Insp Fauzi Hassan prosecuted.

Jesudass, clad in a white T-shirt and blue slacks, was in tears when he was led out of the courtroom. He hugged his sobbing wife, who is in her late 20s, shortly before he was taken to prison.

Earlier, in mitigation, Jesudass appealed to the court to pass a light sentence as his Malaysian wife was seven months pregnant.

He said he had entered the country legally 18 years ago but claimed that he was unaware of the consequences of possessing the identity card because he was illiterate.

C/Insp Fauzi pressed for a deterrent sentence, adding that Jesudass had committed a serious offence for having an identity card that was reported missing, which he later used to start a business.

The accused was said to have been arrested by police at a workshop in Labu near here.

Upon questioning, police discovered that Jesudass was a foreigner and had used an identity card reported missing several years ago to register his business.

The real identity card holder had also lodged a police report last month upon discovering that his name was registered with the Registrar of Companies without his knowledge.