KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — A Bill that will make the death penalty an option and not mandatory anymore has been tabled for its first reading in Parliament today.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said also tabled revisions to the death sentence and imprisonment for natural life (temporary jurisdiction of the federal court) for the first reading.

Other amendment Bills that Azalina tabled today for the first reading were the Sexual Offences Against Children and Evidence of Child Witness.

She said the government plans to table all four Bills for the second reading in the current Dewan Rakyat sitting.

Some of the proposed new policies, should the Bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty be passed, includes replacing life imprisonment as an alternative to the mandatory death sentence with the new alternative of jail of between 30 and 40 years and whipping of not fewer than 12 strokes.

Reported previously, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh said a total of 1,320 prisoners sent to the gallows or sentenced to natural life imprisonment will be affected when the Bill is gazetted.

He added that when the Bill is gazetted, those affected (convicts) can file their application (to use the provisions under the Bill) at the Federal Court with the help of lawyers and the Prisons Department.

According to the deputy minister, the application will go through court processes and the sentences will not be automatically reduced, but will be looked at case by case to determine whether the death penalty should be replaced, and this applies to those who were already sent to the gallows for sentenced to natural life imprisonment.

He also said that the new law will have an impact on these prisoners in terms of rehabilitation and at the same time open up opportunities for them to re-enter the community.

The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 (proposed Act) seeks to abolish the mandatory death penalty, to vary the sentence of imprisonment for natural life and whipping, and to provide for matters connected therewith by amending the Penal Code (Act 574), the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act 1971 (Act 37), the Arms Act 1960 (Act 206), the Kidnapping Act 1961 (Act 365), the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 (Act 234), the Strategic Trade Act 2010 (Act 708) and the Criminal Procedure Code (Act 593) in line with the Government policy to abolish the mandatory death penalty in all legislation.