The Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (Centhra) has condemned the proposal by former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdullah to infest prisons with rats and roaches, which was supported by Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

"It is unbelievable that 16 years into the third millennium and the 21st century, there are persons of high stature as well as formerly holding high office... who contemplate the very notion of deliberate jail cell infestation as aggravating punishment for a form of criminal deterrence, much less dare to give credence to such a medieval idea.

"Prisoners and inmates are first and foremost human beings and undergo incarceration chiefly as a form of rehabilitation, and not as part of a sadistic form of justice," Centhra chief executive Azril Mohd Amin said today.

Azril said such a proposal did not only go against human rights but also against Islam.

"Centhra invites both the former judge Mohd Noor (photo above) and current deputy home minister Nur Jazlan to read and appraise themselves of the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners and put these principles into practice forthwith in all our prisons and detaining facilities.

"They should also discard, once and for all, any disgusting notions of deliberate ill-treatment towards our prisoners and inmates, which not only goes against established human rights norms but also against Islamic teachings on mercy," he said in a statement.

Furthermore, Azril, who is also a lawyer, said deliberate infestation of jail cells would also possibly be in contravention of the Penal Code and Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

The idea that prisoners somehow "deserve" to be treated as sub-humans, on account of their crimes, is vile and should be denounced and condemned, he added.