Kelantan passes Syariah bill allowing whipping in public

The Kelantan State Legislative Assembly today passed an amended Syariah bill which provides for, among other things, the whipping punishment to be executed in public.

The Syariah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2002 (Amendment 2017) Bill also empowers religious enforcement officers to handcuff suspects and allows video clips to be used as evidence in trials.

The amendment to the bill was tabled by the Chairman of the State Islamic Development, Propagation, Information and Public Relations Committee, Datuk Mohd Nassuruddin Daud.

Speaker Datuk Abdullah Yaa'kub announded that the bill was passed with the unanimous support of the state assemblymen present.

When tabling the motion, Mohd Nassuruddin said several factors were taken into account in proposing the amendment, among which was that enactment was 15 years old and the current intensive growth of the world.