KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S bar council said Sunday it was opposed to a judge's plan to cane an offender in his court, saying he could not be both 'judge and executioner.' Sessions court Judge Zainal Abdidin Kamarudin said on Friday he planned to cane 20-year-old sales promoter Syafiq Abdul Wahab in his courtroom on July 15, after he found him guilty of gang robbery.

Mr Zainal also ordered Syafiq's parents to be present in the courtroom where he would mete out the punishment of 10 strokes of the cane, known locally as the 'rotan'.

'Judges must understand their role and what they are and are not allowed to do as we have checks and balances and a separation of powers under the law,' law society president Ragunath Kesavan told AFP.

'He cannot be the judge and executioner and moreover judges do not have the experience or training to carry out such punishment,' he added.

Mr Kesavan said Malaysia's law allowed a judge to inflict corporal punishment, but added that this had last been done over 30 years ago, with the high court swiftly reprimanding the judge for doing so.

Chief Justice Zaki Azmi told The Star daily the planned caning would be investigated.

'I am asking the senior judge in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to look into it and take the appropriate action,' he told the paper. -- AFP