Parliament: 2,500 Malaysians In Foreign Prisons 

A. Kohilan Pillay

KUALA LUMPUR : Some 2,500 Malaysians were held in prisons abroad for various offences in the first six months of this year.

Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay told the Dewan Negara today that among the offences committed were drug smuggling, murder, forging of credit cards, commercial crime, theft, immigration law violations, cheating and falsifying of documents, and human trafficking.

“The countries with Malaysian prisoners are Singapore (1,096), Thailand (444), China (231), Indonesia (148), Taiwan (137), Australia (77), Spain (47), Kuwait (33), Vietnam (29) and France (25),” he said in reply to a question from Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin.

Kohilan said the government was concerned about the fate and welfare of Malaysians detained in foreign prisons but it would not interfere in the internal affairs of these countries.

“The government is working at protecting the rights of our citizens under detention abroad as provided under our own law and international law such as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963,” he said.