PUTRAJAYA • Fifty-eight people, who have been sentenced to prison terms for violating Malaysia's stay-at-home order, have been placed in temporary detention centres to serve their time, said Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday.
The Home Ministry has set up 11 of these so-called special prisons for offenders of the movement control order (MCO) after they were sentenced by the courts.
The government has imposed fines of up to RM1,000 (S$327) and short jail sentences on people caught at police and army roadblocks across the country, to deter Malaysians from leaving their homes amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Others were caught by the authorities for breaching the MCO by gathering in groups or holding parties at home. Some of those detained were migrant workers.
These detention centres are converted premises of training academies under the Prisons Department, and started operations last Thursday.
"To date, the special prisons have begun operations and 58 people, who have been sentenced by the courts for violating the MCO, have been sent to the temporary prisons," Datuk Seri Ismail was quoted by Malaysiakini news site as saying.
He was speaking to the media at his daily news conference on security issues for the virus outbreak.
Some of the MCO violators had been placed in regular prisons but the Prisons Department said it was worried that overcrowding could cause new Covid-19 clusters.
Under Section 7(1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease (Measures Within the Infected Local Areas) Regulations 2020, a person in breach of the MCO can be fined up to RM1,000 or imprisoned for up to six months or both.
Asked about the treatment of those housed in the temporary detention centres, Mr Ismail said: "The same rules and laws of a normal prison will apply.
"There isn't going to be better food or things like that.
"We will follow the normal prison standard operating procedure."
He said last week that 14,750 people have been arrested for breaching the movement curbs, with some 1,500 charged in court.
Malaysia was into its 39th day of the MCO yesterday.
Its Health Ministry reported 51 new infections to bring the total to 5,742 cases, with two more deaths taking the fatality toll to 98.
Another 99 patients who have recovered were discharged to bring the total who left hospitals to 3,762.
There are 1,882 active cases of patients being treated in hospitals.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
