End of Malaysia’s mandatory death sentence on the horizon
BY YISWAREE PALANSAMYTuesday November 17, 2015
05:42 PM GMT+8
De facto law minister Nancy Shukri wanted to submit a proposal to amend the Penal Code abolishing the mandatory death sentence to the Dewan Rakyat as early as next March. — File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov
17 — Malaysia may finally see the end of the decades long practice of
mandatory death sentence imposed on some serious crimes, most notably
for drug-related offences, if de facto law minister Nancy Shukri gets
her way.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said today she hopes to
take her proposal to amend the Penal Code and abolish the mandatory
death sentence to the Dewan Rakyat as early as March next year.
“It is not easy to amend, but we are working on it. I hope to table it
next year in March,” Nancy told reporters after attending a roundtable
discussion on the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Parliament
here.
Under Malaysia’s current law, the death sentence is a must for firearms, drugs, treason and murder related offences.
However, Nancy said the threat of a death penalty has done little to reduce the number of such crimes committed.
In a written reply to Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran dated November 3,
Nancy cited statistics from the Prisons Department and said there are
currently 1,022 convicted inmates awaiting execution.
However, she said the sentences could not be carried out as the inmates are still appealing the court’s decision.
“From 1998 till October 6 this year, 33 prisoners have been executed for their involvement in various crimes.
“In the same period, 127 inmates on death row received lighter
sentences or clemency after the State Pardons Board had considered their
pleas and petitions under Order 114 of the Prisons Regulations 2000,”
Nancy said in the written reply.
Kulasegaran had asked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to state if
necessary laws will be amended to abolish the death sentence and if
not, why.
He also asked to specify the numbers of those executed by the court between 1957 till 2015.
Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, a former senior judge,
recently weighed in on the mandatory death penalty too, saying in an
interview with The Malaysian Insider last weekend that he wished the
courts had discretion on sending convicts to the gallows or otherwise. - Malay Mail, 17/11/2015
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