On 1 March 2019, H.E. Mr. Narong Sasitorn, Ambassador of Thailand to Malaysia, and Mr. George Varughese, President of the Malaysian Bar, signed a cooperation agreement to extend the Malaysian Bar’s legal aid scheme to Thai people in Malaysia.

The Thai Citizen Legal Aid Scheme or T-CLAS was initiated in 2018 when the Royal Thai Embassy sought to further strengthen cooperation with the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Kuala Lumpur. The scheme aims to provide better access to legal aid to Thai people in Malaysia through legal clinics, public outreach programmes, regular prison visits and an affordable lawyer scheme similar to Malaysia’s National Legal Aid Foundation (YBGK - Yayasan Bantuan Guaman Kebangsaan) scheme.

This new agreement between the Embassy and the Malaysian Bar will expand the scope of the Thai Citizen Legal Aid Scheme to cover the northern states of Malaysia, namely Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu. The agreement also expands to cover new areas including sharia law and assistance in seeking clemency for inmates on death sentence.

Ambassador Sasitorn said “The signing ceremony today marks yet another step of the ever growing partnership between the Malaysian Bar and the Royal Thai Embassy.   We look forward to welcoming on board even more Bar Council Legal Aid Centres next year. With this agreement, our partnership will eventually cover the whole peninsular Malaysia.”

Also present at the signing ceremony were Mr. Mongkol Sinsomboon, Consul General of Thailand in Kota Bharu, Mr. Sukoom Somprasonk, Deputy Consul General of Thailand in Penang, Mr. Collin Andrew, Chairman of the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Ravi Chandran, Chairman of the Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Penang, Mr. Mohd Hayyatuddin bin Muhamad, Chairman of Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Terengganu, Mr. Rosman Azwan bin Osman, Chairman of Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Kedah, Ms. Norharniza binti Rusli, Chairman of Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Perlis and Ms. Fauzana binti Ismail, Chairman of Bar Council Legal Aid Centre Kelantan.