9,700 foreigners jailed in Malaysia

Monday July 9, 2012 9,700 foreigners jailed in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: Some 9,757 foreigners are serving sentences in Malaysian prisons. Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi said they formed 27% of the 36,728 prisoners nationwide. “This figure is not alarming but I must admit that there are more foreign prisoners than locals in Sabah. “Of the total 1,300 prisoners in Sabah, 1,020 are foreigners,” he told reporters after closing the 1KDN Family Carnival at the Kajang Prison Complex yesterday. Rahim said that to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, prisoners would be relocated to other prisons to ensure that their numbers were balanced. “As for foreign prisoners, we don’t want the issue of overcrowding in prisons to burden the country and ministry,” he said. Some 3,600 of 4,100 prisoners under the parole system had completed their parole period and were released, he added. — Bernama http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/7/9/nation/11628276&sec=nation