KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Implementing hudud will prevent crime and save the government RM5.8 million spent monthly on repeat offenders imprisoned for crime, the PAS ulama wing claimed today.

PAS ulama information chief Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali At-Takiri said Islamic criminal law has been proven in modern history to prevent theft and robbery, citing Saudi Arabia’s rate of 2,669 criminal cases throughout 2012 compared to Malaysia’s 63,221 cases from January to May in the same year.

“We should admit that we really need a new law that can protect our safety and our rights from the threat of crime,” Khairuddin said in a statement published on PAS organ Harakah Daily.

He claimed that implementing an Islamic criminal justice system will save the country RM5,830,650 monthly as the government spends RM1,050 monthly per prisoner, and 5,533 out of 6,796 incarcerated repeat offenders for the year 2013 involved criminal cases.

It is unclear if all 5,533 repeat offenders are Muslims as hudud would not apply — as PAS claims — to non-Muslims.

The PAS cleric cited police statistics revealed by government agency Pemandu that showed violent crime — murder, rape, robbery and hurt — rising in the first half of 2013 to 15,098 cases, compared to 14,811 cases for the same period in 2012.

The Kelantan legislative assembly recently passed the Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 (Amendment 2015) that seeks to legislate against theft and robbery — both of which are already offences under the civil Penal Code — as well as against adultery, false accusation of adultery, liquor consumption and apostasy.

“Therefore, it is very suitable if Islamic criminal law is accepted as the new criminal law in our country to tackle violent and property crime that are increasingly rampant in our country today,” said Khairuddin.

Kelantan’s hudud enactment punishes apostasy and adultery with death, while theft is punishable with amputation of limbs.

Khairuddin also claimed that Islamic criminal law had been implemented in nine Malay states before the formation of the Malaysian federation.

“The fact is that Islamic criminal law is not foreign to Malaysians. It has been enforced before and it will be enforced again, God willing,” he said.

Women’s groups, however, have expressed concern that implementing hudud law will deter rape victims from reporting their sexual assault, pointing out that they risk being charged with adultery instead that is punishable with death by stoning.

UK newspaper The Independent reported in 2013 the case of a 13-year-old Somali girl called Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow who was gang-raped but was accused of adultery instead when she tried to report the crime, leading to her being stoned to death in southern Somalia in 2008.