KUALA LUMPUR: The cabinet has given the green light for the death penalty to be abolished.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said the amendments to the existing laws imposing the death penalty as a capital punishment would be tabled in the next Dewan Rakyat Sitting.
The Dewan Rakyat Budget sitting will commence on Oct 15.
Liew said the necessary paperwork to abolish the death penalty which is now in its the final stages had received the go ahead from the Attorney General Chambers to be tabled in Parliament.
He said until the abolishment of the death penalty rakes place there should also be in place a moratorium of death penalty sentences from being carried out.
“All death penalty will be abolished. Full stop.
“We are studying certain issues... we need to look into it and hear the views of all, but as it stands today, the decision is to abolish the death penalty,” he said.
Liew, who is also in charge of legal affairs told this to reporters after attending the “Law Reform Talk” at Universiti Malaya here, today.
He said with the government’s move in abolishing the death penalty, the Pardons Board will now be tasked at looking into the position of death row convicts, which would either see their sentences commuted or released.
“Our view is that executions should not be carried out. We will inform the Pardons Board to look into the various applications for all the death row inmates to either commuted or they be released.
“When commuted, they would have to face life imprisonment because there had been several deaths that were caused by the offender and so they were sentenced to death by the court,” he said.
Liew, adds that different consideration must also be given convicts who for example committed less serious offences such as being used as drug mule.
In Malaysia, the death penalty carried out by hanging is mandatory for crimes such as murder with intent to kill, for trafficking excessive amounts of drugs and possession of firearms.
Between 2007 and 2017, 35 individuals faced the gallows. A total of 1,267 prisoners are on death row, making up 2.7 per cent of the 60,000 behind bars.