KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 12): The 1,020 prisoners currently serving the mandatory death or natural life imprisonment sentences must file their application for a review in the Federal Court within three months effective from Tuesday, said Deputy Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh.
He said it would be a one-off application, and the filing of the motion and supporting affidavit for the review must be done by the Prisons Department.
“The application for a review can be submitted to the court manually, or via an e-filing, within the next 90 days, as the Review of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Act 2023 (Act 847) comes into effect today (Tuesday).
“However, the court can consider an extension on reasonable grounds,” he said during a briefing on the implementation process of Act 847 at the Asian International Arbitration Centre here.
He said prisoners can choose their own lawyers, have one appointed by the court in the case of a death sentence, or be represented by a lawyer from the National Legal Aid Foundation in cases of natural life imprisonment, to submit an application.
“Cases in Sabah and Sarawak will be handled by the respective state lawyers. As for foreigners, the Prisons Department will have discussions and engagement sessions with the relevant embassies and consulates,” added Ramkarpal.
He said such applications for a review will involve a hearing before a panel of Federal Court judges with the power to either maintain the current sentence, or commute it to a jail term of not less than 30 years and not exceeding 40 years.
“If the court rejects the application and maintains the current sentence, the prisoner can appeal to the Pardons Board,” he said.
According to Ramkarpal, the mandatory death sentence involves 491 local and 415 foreign prisoners, whereas 82 locals and 32 foreigners are serving imprisonment for natural life.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
