Even so, the sentence can only be reduced by one year or less than a third of the jail term, deputy foreign minister Mohamad Alamin added.

“However, priority will be given to women and elderly inmates, as well as for non-drug related offences,” he said in a written reply.

Mohamad was responding to Wong Chen (PH-Subang) who asked for an update on efforts to help K Hemakavin, a drug mule imprisoned in Cambodia.

Hemakavin was given a 25-year prison sentence in 2017 after he was found guilty of a drug offence. The Cambodian appellate court upheld his conviction in 2018.

Mohamad said that representatives from the Malaysian embassy in Phnom Penh had visited Hemakavin often since his incarceration, with the last visit to the Correctional Center 1 on July 26.

“Hemakavin, along with other Malaysian detainees, were provided with medicine and Malaysian food.”

FMT had previously highlighted Hemakavin’s plight.

In March, his father M Karthigesu appealed to the government to bring back his son.

Karthigesu claimed that Hemakavin had been duped by a drug trafficking syndicate when travelling to Phnom Penh in 2016 with his girlfriend, her sister and the sister’s boyfriend.