PUTRAJAYA will table a bill to abolish the death penalty in the coming parliamentary sitting, which begins October 15, said de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong.

Until the death penalty is abolished, a moratorium on it has been put in place, added the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

“All death penalties will be abolished. Full stop,” Liew told reporters after speaking at a law forum in Universiti Malaya today.

“We need to look into it and hear the views of all, but as it stands today, the decision is to abolish the death penalty,” he said.

At the same time, the Pardons Board will be tasked with looking into the applications of death row inmates, he added.

“Our view is that executions should not be carried out and we will inform the Pardons Board to look into the various applications for all the death row inmates to either commute or release them.

“When commuted, they would have to face life imprisonment because there had been several deaths that were caused by the offender and so they were sentenced to death by the court,” he said.

He also said the paperwork for the abolition is in its final stages, and that the attorney-general (A-G) had given the green light for it to be tabled in Parliament.

“All the papers are in the final stage. The A-G has also indicated to us that it is ready to be tabled, hopefully in this (parliamentary) session,” he said.

Earlier during the forum, Liew told participants that the cabinet consensus on child marriages was that only adults can consent to do so.

“The consensus is to limit marriages to 18 (years and above). Full stop. Meaning below 18 cannot get married.”

He expects a bill to be tabled in Parliament soon by the Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also deputy prime minister.

He added that certain native tribes and communities allow their children to be married in their teens.

“Sometimes because there are too many people in the house or they need extra hands for farming. These are isolated cases.” – October 10, 2018.