No chopping or stoning in hudud Bill, says Husam
Report: Sex, booze and false accusation are the only crimes proposed for Islamic penalties
(Free Malaysia Today) – There will be no amputations, stonings or crucifixions allowed in a proposed private member’s Bill on hudud Islamic criminal penalties, PAS vice-president Husam Musa is reported to have said on Friday night.
Husam, at a public forum here, tried to allay public fears of the Bill, which PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang wishes to table in the Dewan Rakyat, to seek parliamentary and federal approval to impose hudud penalties in Kelantan.
He said the only crimes for which hudud penalties apply would be premarital sex (“zina”), consuming alcohol and making false accusations (“qazaf”), Malaysiakini reported.
Hudud criminal penalties would not include amputations, stoning to death or crucifixion, as reported earlier, but would only extend to caning, Husam said, according to the report.
“Not everything in the enactment can be implemented,” he said, referring to the Kelantan state law on syariah courts. “(So) the punishment is just caning. There will be no chopping off hands and so on. (The other hudud punishments) remain in the enactment, but we can’t implement them,” he reportedly said.
The jurisdiction of syariah courts in Kelantan would also not extend to crimes listed under the civil law Penal Code, such as sodomy and theft, he is reported to have said.
Husam’s remarks come in the wake of severe criticism from political parties and civil rights groups about the potential conflict between Kelantan’s extension of syariah law and criminal law based on the civil law Federal Constitution.
