Govt studying formation of council to review all criminal sentences: Azalina

PUTRAJAYA – The Prime Minister’s Department’s Legal Affairs Division (BHEUU) is currently studying the establishment of a sentencing council to review all criminal sentences, including drug-related sentences, under Malaysian law, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

She said the council would provide guidelines and reduce prison sentences by promoting more rehabilitative and restorative sentences across Malaysian criminal law.

She said BHEUU was also studying ways to overhaul the Offenders Compulsory Attendance Act 1954.

“It is to promote imposition of community-based rehabilitation instead of imprisonment for offenders sentenced to imprisonment for three years and below, in particular for first-time offenders.

“This could include minor drug offenders, which make up 63% of prison inmates in Malaysia,” she said in a statement issued in conjunction with yesterday’s meeting of the cabinet committee on eradicating drugs, which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Addressing overcrowding in prisons is a human rights priority for the Madani government, given the detrimental risks faced by inmates due to those conditions, Azalina said.

“I hope to present the outcomes of the above efforts as a joint cabinet paper with the Home Ministry and the Health Ministry by the next parliamentary sitting at the end of 2023,” she said.

She said it was vital for both the law, and enforcement agencies to keep up with the times, especially with regard to advances in sophisticated manufacturing of synthetic drugs and methods of abuse.

“The existing Malaysian laws on drugs were made in the 1950s. At this juncture, the discretion of the judiciary is especially important in addressing drug traffickers separately from drug abusers, and for the latter, a case-by-case treatment such as whether the individual is a first-time user, etc.

“The discretion of the judiciary is also vital in introducing rehabilitation options instead of sentences focusing solely on punishment,” she added.

Understanding that drug dependency is a medical condition, Azalina said the government wished to revise the present approach to the problem.

“We hope to also see the inclusion of medical intervention, treatment, and rehabilitation in addressing drug dependency,” she said.

Yesterday, Zahid said the Home Ministry and the National Anti-Drug Agency had been given three months to coordinate efforts to devise effective initiatives or programmes to curb drug problems. – Bernama, July 11, 2023