Extradition of secessionists no easy task!

What’s an offence in Malaysia may not be an offence abroad.

KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya would like to extradite Sabahans and Sarawakians, living abroad, who are instigating secession of their homelands from the 1963 Federation of the two Borneo nations with the peninsula but has run into snags.

Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jaafar, who is from Sarawak, gave this reply in Parliament in response to a question from Silam MP Datu Nasrun Datu Mansur, and added that “what’s an offence here, may not be an offence there”.

“Extraditions between two countries require the element of double criminality.”

Malaysia has no extradition treaty with the UK, for example, and the latter has also abolished its own Sedition Act, a law which it introduced in Malaya in 1948, he pointed out.

“We have good relations with the authorities in England, so this (extradition) can be done but what is an offence here must also be an offence there and they must reciprocate, and then only ‘extradition’ can happen,” said Wan Junaidi in spelling out the realities on the secession issue.

Nasrun had alleged in his question that the secessionists were becoming more vocal with the support abroad, especially in the United Kingdom.

The Deputy Home Minister said the Attorney-General’s Chambers was currently going through the investigation papers on the secessionists “and will look into the extradition process if there is sufficient evidence for prosecution”.

The UK-based Sabah-Sarawak Keluar Malaysia (SSKM) headed by Doris Jones of Sabah, disclosed Wan Junaidi, is among those being investigated.