In June last year, Malaysia announced its intention to abolish the mandatory death penalty for non-violent offences and give the courts discretion in sentencing but the road to achieving this is long and winding albeit with an end in sight.

With the new coalition government, led by Pakatan Harapan which first put the moratorium on the death penalty in 2018, in place, work on the necessary amendments to existing legislation has continued.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Ramkarpal Singh said in a statement on Jan 10 that they were re-examining and reviewing alternative sentences to the mandatory death penalty before tabling the amendments in the ...