CNA – Malaysia’s Parliament yesterday passed sweeping legal reforms to remove the mandatory death penalty, trim the number of offences punishable by death, and abolish natural-life prison sentences.
Malaysia has had a moratorium on executions since 2018, when it first promised to abolish capital punishment entirely.
The government, however, faced political pressure from some parties and rowed back on the pledge a year later, saying it would retain the death penalty but allow courts to replace it with other punishments at their discretion.
Under the amendments passed yesterday, alternatives to the death penalty include caning and imprisonment of between 30 to 40 years. The new jail term will replace all previous provisions that call for imprisonment for the duration of the offender’s natural life.
Life imprisonment sentences, defined by Malaysian law as a fixed term of 30 years, will be retained.
Capital punishment will also be removed as an option for some serious crimes that do not cause death, such as discharging and trafficking of a firearm and kidnapping, according to the new measures.
The amendment to the law will give judges discretion when it comes to sentencing a convicted person to the death penalty, Malay Mail reported.
The amendments passed will apply to 34 offences currently punishable by death, including murder and drug trafficking. Eleven of them carry it as a mandatory punishment.
Deputy Law Minister Ramkarpal Singh (Bernama, pic above) said capital punishment was an irreversible punishment that had not been an effective deterrent for crime.
“The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring,” he said while wrapping up the parliamentary debates on the Bill. The Bill must now be approved by Malaysia’s Upper House before it is presented to the King for approval, reported the Malay Mail.
The Star reported previously that if the Bills were passed, more than 1,300 people currently on death row can seek a review of their sentence by the federal court.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman said last week that death row inmates will be able to file an application for a review of their sentence.
She added that the application can only be made once and must be made within 90 days of the new law coming into force. Last June, the Malaysian government announced its decision to abolish the mandatory death penalty as part of its commitment at the international level to refrain from imposing capital punishment.
“We are of the view that everyone deserves a second chance,” said former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, according to Bernama.
