PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA - The Malaysian Bar Council has reiterated its stand against whipping and called on the authorities to overturn the sentence meted out against Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno.

"Our position echoes international human rights norms that condemn whipping and other forms of corporal punishment as cruel, inhuman or degrading and call for its abolition," Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan said in a statement on Monday.

There was evidence that whipping has failed as a deterrent sentence, he added.

Ragunath urged the Government to reject whipping as a form of sentencing for any offence and to abolish it altogether.

He said Malaysian civil law prohibited the whipping of women, children and men of certain ages and those with certain health conditions.

Meanwhile PAS Youth chief Nasruddin Hassan said the whipping should be carried out as requested by Kartika and her family members.

He added that any legal complication that could arise from the punishment should have been analysed earlier and the issue had exposed the weaknesses of the Syariah system.

--The Star/ANN