KUALA LUMPUR: Padang Serai MP N. Surendran has urged Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to provide better and further particulars on a statement he made in Parliament on Thursday on prison deaths. “He should urgently explain to the people the reasons for the high number of prison deaths.”
Further, added the MP in a statement, Zahid should state what immediate steps he proposes to take to address this matter. “He must treat this as a matter of grave importance as it involves the sanctity of human life.”
An average 18 prisoners, according to Zahid, die each month in prison, noted Surendran.
The MP was following up on Zahid revealing that between 2013 and 30 April 2016, 721 prisoners died in Malaysian prisons. “This information was given in answer to a parliamentary question I had submitted to the Home Minister,” disclosed Surendran.
Of this figure, 427 were Malays, 104 Chinese, 91 Indians, 10 others and 89 foreign citizens, according to Zahid, pointed Surendran. Read more
