KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet during its meeting last Friday has given its nod to several new policies in a bid to abolish the mandatory death penalty.
Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said the policies include no more lifelong imprisonment as an alternative to the mandatory death penalty.
The proposed alternative, she said, was a jail term of no less than 30 years and not exceeding 40 years, as well as no less than 12 strokes of the rotan.
"In addition, lifelong imprisonment as a punishment would be abolished completely.
"The mandatory death sentence would be abolished for offences which do not cause death, except for three offences namely Sections 212 and 121A of the Penal Code, as well as Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
"A new Bill (RUU) will also be introduced to enable death sentences of lifelong imprisonment already imposed by courts to be reviewed by the Federal Court.
"This will have an impact on 957 people who are on death row and those on lifelong imprisonment who had exhausted their appeal process in court," she said in the Dewan Negara today.
The minister was answering a question from Senator Datuk Koh Nai Kwong, who had asked on the status of the replacement punishments for the mandatory death penalty.
Azalina at the same time stressed that the government was aiming to amend the punishments - and not abolish the death penalty - by giving judges the discretion to decide.
Azalina said the first reading of the Abolishment of the Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 and Review of the Death Penalty and Lifelong Imprisonment (Federal Court Temporary Jurisdiction) 2023 will be carried out on Monday (March 27).
"The Abolishment of the Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 is expected to impact 476 people on death row who have yet to exhaust the appeal process, whether in the Court of Appeal or Federal Court.
"This is because the alternative punishment to the mandatory death sentence will be revisionary in nature," she said.
Azalina said the government had organised 19 engagement sessions and meetings with stakeholders including government agencies, lawyers, former Chief Justices, constitutional experts, final stage prison inmates and their families, as well as non-governmental agencies such as Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (Adpan) as well as Reprieve in the United Kingdom.
"The legislative amendment involving judgment and alternative punishment policies to the mandatory death penalty signals a postive change to the criminal justice system in Malaysia.
"This will enable it to become more holistic and inclusive, and does not deny an individual's basic right to obtain justice."
The proposal to abolish the mandatory death penalty was first agreed upon in June last year.
Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, then-Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law), said the cabinet had agreed for a further study to be carried out on the proposal to substitute sentences for 11 offences carrying the mandatory death penalty including one under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 as well as 22 other offences that also carry the death penalty, but at the discretion of the Courts.
Pakatan Harapan, after winning the 15th General Election (GE15) last year, subsequently announced on Jan 10 that it was re-examining and reviewing alternative sentences to the mandatory death penalty before tabling the amendments.
PH, during its first stint as the federal government in 2018, had placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2018.
Azalina, in a statement in January, announced that the government will amend laws that carry a mandatory death sentence to allow for alternative sentencing in the coming parliamentary sitting.
The bill to amend the laws, she said, will impact 1,327 prisoners on death row.