Asian Legal Review

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday denounced the caning of two Muslim women for attempting lesbian sex, a sentence that sparked outrage and raised fears about the treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
The women had pleaded guilty to charges under Islamic laws forbidding lesbian sex. They were caned on Monday in front of dozens of people at a sharia court in Terengganu, a conservative state in the east, prompting an outcry from human rights…

A new visa allowing international students to stay in the UK and work for up to two years after graduation would benefit employers and make the UK a more attractive place to study, according to Universities UK.

Indian police have arrested a woman and four others after her nine-year-old stepdaughter was allegedly gang-raped, murdered and mutilated, in the latest horrific crime to shock the country.
The child’s decomposed body was found on Tuesday hidden behind bushes about a kilometre from her home in the Baramulla district of Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.
Her father had reported her missing 12 days earlier.
Police said the woman, 36, was jealous of her stepdaughter and of her husband…

Construction of the high-speed rail link between Malaysia and Singapore will be postponed for two years rather than cancelled, the two governments said on Wednesday.
After weeks of talks, negotiators managed to avoid scrapping the project altogether – the outcome Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had previously said he preferred.
An agreement, signed in Mahathir’s office by Singapore’s Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan and the Malaysian Economic Affairs Minister Azmin…

Businesses cannot wait for clarity over the terms of the UK’s final deal with the EU before taking steps to prepare for Brexit, an expert has warned.

A Malaysian MP has called for laws that criminalise homosexuality to be immediately abolished amid an outcry over the caning of two women convicted by a sharia court of attempting to have lesbian sex.
Charles Santiago, a parliamentary member from the Malaysian state of Selangor, expressed his outrage in a series of tweets after the punishment was carried out in the Terengganu court on Monday morning.
That two women were caned while “100 people gawked at them” in the public gallery…

Seventy-six Myanmar civil society groups called on Tuesday for the release of two jailed Reuters reporters, denouncing their conviction as unfair and an assault on the right to freedom of information.
A court found the two journalists guilty on Monday of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years in a landmark case seen as a test of progress towards democracy in Myanmar, which was ruled by a military junta until 2011.
Myanmar hudge jails Reuters journalists for seven years…

A new report analysing a no-deal Brexit has predicted a slowdown in the economy and a significant impact for supermarkets, online retail and medical suppliers.

The latest Rei Nakagawa has had to stay at her desk in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Tokyo was half-past midnight, but she definitely considers herself lucky because she is usually able to turn off her computer before 7pm. More than one in four of her colleagues, however, do not leave the ministry in the Kasumigaseki district of the city before 11pm, a new study has revealed, which is ironic given that it is at the forefront of the government’s campaign to eliminate the…

Two Malaysian women were caned on Monday for having lesbian sex in violation of strict Islamic laws, despite an outcry from activists at the “cruel and unjust” punishment. The case has sparked widespread condemnation and focused attention on what rights groups say is a deteriorating climate for the gay community in the Muslim-majority country. Campaigners said it was the first time that women in Malaysia have been caned for violating a sharia regulation which forbids same-sex…