Monday, April 03, 2023

Dewan Rakyat votes to abolish mandatory death penalty


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Dewan Rakyat votes to abolish mandatory death penalty





A Bill proposing to make the death penalty an option and no longer mandatory was passed via a voice vote after it was tabled for its third reading in Parliament today. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

Monday, 03 Apr 2023 4:22 PM MYT



KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — A Bill proposing to make the death penalty an option and no longer mandatory was passed via a voice vote after it was tabled for its third reading in Parliament today.

Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Alice Lau called for the vote after Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Ramkarpal Singh’s winding-up speech on the Bill.


The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill would give judges the discretion on the death penalty rather than requiring them to do so when convicting on offences that made them mandatory.

The amendments in the Bill also include replacing life and natural life imprisonment (until death) as an alternative to the mandatory death sentence, with the new alternative of jail of between 30 and 40 years as well as no fewer than 12 strokes of the cane.


The Bill must now to be approved in the Dewan Negara as well before being presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for royal assent.


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