Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) welcomes the passing of two bills by the Malaysian Senate, the upper house of the Malaysian Parliament, on 11 April.
The bills are the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 and the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction Of The Federal Court) Bill 2023.
The House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, had passed these bills on 3 April.
Time for assent
After this, the King will have to assent to the bills. Article 66(4) states:
(4) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall within thirty days after a Bill is presented to him assent to the Bill by causing the Public Seal to be affixed thereto.
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However, if the King does not assent within the stipulated 30 days, then Article 66(4A) states:
(4A) If a Bill is not assented to by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong within the time specified in Clause (4), it shall become law at the expiration of the time specified in that Clause in the like manner as if he had assented thereto…
Minister must not procrastinate
Even after the King has assented to the bill, it will still not become law until it is published and put into force by the relevant minister. Article 66(5) says:
A Bill shall become law on being assented to by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or as provided in Clause (4A), but no law shall come into force until it has been published, without prejudice, however, to the power of Parliament to postpone the operation of any law or to make laws with retrospective effect….
Madpet requests the speedy assents to these bills, and for the minister to then immediately cause it to be published and put into force.
Abolition of mandatory death penalty
The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 abolishes the mandatory death penalty and natural life imprisonment. Thereafter, for these death penalty offences, judges will have the discretion to sentence to death or impose a sentence of “imprisonment for a term of not less than thirty years but not exceeding forty years and if not sentenced to death, shall also be punished with whipping of not less than twelve strokes”.
The bill also will also amend “imprisonment for natural life” with the words “imprisonment for a term of not less than thirty years but not exceeding forty years”. These reasonably ends imprisonment until one dies.
In Malaysia, the sentence of “imprisonment for life” is as stated in the Criminal Justice Act section which states:
Where any person is treated as having been sentenced or is hereafter sentenced to imprisonment for life, such sentence shall be deemed for all purposes to be a sentence of imprisonment for thirty years;
Revision of sentence
The Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction Of The Federal Court) Bill 2023 will allow the Federal Court to review the sentence of death and imprisonment for natural life imposed on a convicted person following the abolition of the mandatory death penalty.
This will benefit the about 840 of the 1,320 on death row, who have completed all appeals – [they] will have their death sentence reviewed by the Federal Court. Likewise, those who who have been sentenced to natural life imprisonment.
Madpet requests the speedy assent of the two bills – The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 and the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction Of The Federal Court) Bill 2023
Madpet calls for the minister responsible, after getting Royal Assent, to immediately publish and put the two acts of Parliament into force.
Noting that the bills, when they becomes acts of Parliament, will not abolish the death penalty, Madpet reiterates its call for the abolition of the death penalty, and the continued moratorium on executions pending abolition.
Madpet also reiterates its call for the abolition of all forms of corporal punishment, including whipping.
Charles Hector issued this statement on behald of Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture
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