The government is considering ordering witnesses in court cases to wear electronic monitoring devices on their ankles to ensure they turn up to testify.

"Using ankle bracelets will allow us to track them," attorney-general Gani Patail was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

His call comes after the recent highly-publicised murder trial of a 14-year-old Chinese national, which ended in the acquittal of all three accused after two witnesses failed to appear.

Gani said the proposal would be submitted to the cabinet next month, and if it was accepted the bracelets could also be used to keep tabs on those accused of minor offences such as theft, instead of holding them on remand.

No violation of human rights

He insisted that the measure would not be a violation of human rights.

"This is an improvement of the present structure which allows me, if I believe that a man will run away from the country, to send him to a civil prison," he said.

"Imagine a witness being imprisoned together with convicts. Isn't that inhuman?"

The monitoring devices contain a transmitter that sends send signals to a central monitoring computer. They can only be removed by breaking the strap that fixes them to the ankle, which then alerts the authorities.