Amid a protest from China, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today that the government released 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims from its custody as they had not broken any law in Malaysia.
"They have not done anything wrong in this country, so they were released," Mahathir told reporters in the Parliament complex.
Last Friday, it was reported that prosecutors had dropped chargesagainst the Uighurs on humanitarian grounds and they arrived in Turkey after flying out of Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
In an immediate reaction, Reuters reported China's opposition to Malaysia's decision to release and deport the 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims to Turkey, disregarding its request to hand them to Beijing.
However, Mahathir said today that he was not aware of any protest from China.
On concerns raised over the government's move to abolish the death penalty, Mahathir said: "We have not yet passed the legislations required to abolish (the death penalty).
"Just saying it does not mean that the punishment has been abolished. Not yet," he said when asked for comments on a proposal for the abolition to be limited to only drug offenders.
"We have to wait until we amend the necessary Act to repeal the death penalty," he said.
On Oct 10, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong reportedly said that the government will abolish the death penalty soon and there should be a moratorium on all executions until then.
"Since we are abolishing the sentence, all executions should not be carried out.
"We will inform the Pardons Board to look into various applications for convicts on the (death penalty) waiting list to either be commuted or released," he had said. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.