Lawyer Malaysian Laws Not Sufficient To Handle Icc Esque Crimes

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The country's existing laws are not sufficient to handle the four major offences stipulated under the International Criminal Court (ICC), said a human rights lawyer
According to Edmund Bon, the country would need to amend its Penal Code to cater to the crimes, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression, if it accedes to the Rome Statute of the ICC
He also told Malaysiakini that under the current situation, the ICC might step in if any of the crimes were to be committed in Malaysia due to the insufficiency
"It (the existing law) is not enough
"That is why once we sign up to ICC, we need to amend the laws," he said when met at the sidelines of a seminar on Rome Statute held in Kuala Lumpur today
Bon (photo) was one of the panellists who spoke at the programme organised by the Coalition for the ICC (CICC) and the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights
The lawyer had earlier told the seminar participants that Malaysia still does not have any laws to address crimes of genocide, albeit having signed the Genocide Convention in 1994
When posed with a hypothetical question whether the ICC would step in if genocide were to happen in the country, he said there is the possibility though "very slim"
"If we want to try people for genocide, we need to have genocide laws
"For now, such cases can only be tried under the law for murder," he said
"(The law) is not enough... There is the possibility (for ICC to step in). Although it is very slim, but possible," he added
On March 4, it was reported that Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah had signed the Instrument of Accession to the Rome Statute
However, last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced Putrajaya's decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute.  - Mkini

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