NEW DELHI: Malaysia will look into India’s request for an international transfer of prisoners programme with the country, said Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said the matter had been previously discussed at the level of senior government officials, and would now be scrutinised at a higher level.
“We will scrutinise this request at the right time. It needs approval from our Attorney-General’s Chambers,” he told Malaysian media covering his three-day working visit to India, here yesterday.
Ahmad Zahid noted that Malaysia had such prisoner transfer arrangements with countries like Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Iran, Iraq, Latvia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey.
For a similar programme with India to materialise, he said certain terms and conditions according to international practice would need to be fulfilled.
For one, he said, the transfer of international prisoners could only be carried out with countries having similar laws with Malaysia.
To be eligible to be transferred to their country of origin, Ahmad Zahid said the prisoners, among others, should not be those on death row and their cases should not involve rape and sodomy.
Earlier, Ahmad Zahid met India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval in a closed-door meeting where discussions focused on security and safety issues between the two nations, including the international prisoner transfer programme.
The Malaysian deputy prime minister noted that of the 361 Indian nationals – 342 men and 19 women – currently held in Malaysia, 41 would technically qualify for such an international prisoner transfer scheme. — Bernama