A former Sessions Court judge today said that the suspects in the arson attack on Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, which claimed the lives of 21 students and two teachers, are liable to be whipped, if convicted.

Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said that although they cannot be sentenced to death under Section 302 of the Penal Code because they are juveniles, they can face whipping on the advice of a doctor.

"Under the law, a doctor will assess their physical and mental state and determine whether they are fit to be given the whipping punishment,” he told Bernama after attending the 10th Tun Suffian Memorial Lecture at Universiti Malaya here.

He was commenting on a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said saying that the seven suspects in the case cannot be sentenced to death under Section 302 of the Penal Code because all were underage.

Earlier in the memorial lecture, former High Court judge of New Zealand Edward Taihakurei Durie, who is also chief judge of the Maori Land Court, delivered a lecture entitled “Indigenous Law and Responsible Water Governance.”

- Bernama