Pardons Board not sitting regularly

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Pardons Board has not been sitting regularly and in some states like Johor, it has not sat for years, said Suhakam’s Com­missioner Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah.

Shafee described this as a serious breach of human rights.

“The right to be reviewed by a Pardons Board is an automatic right. The Pardons Board has got a public duty to sit and consider each case on its merits and other matters to see if they would review a death sentence and commute the sentence to life or any other term of imprisonment,” he said in an interview.

Shafee, who is the chairman of Suhakam’s Law Reforms and Inter­national Treaties Committee, said the Pardons Board in states like Selangor and Federal Territory were very methodical as they met regularly.

“But I am told Johor and possibly other states have not sat for years. They may have their reasons but something has to be done as it is unconstitutional and a breach of human rights.

“We are monitoring the situation,” he said, as part of Suhakam’s study on prison reforms.

Shafee said Suhakam officers had gone to various prisons, from Tereng­ganu, Kelantan and Johor to Penang as well as some in Sabah and Sarawak, and posed very serious questions to the prison authorities, compelling them to give statistics.

“Statistics are very important. We want to know how many people there are in death row now and how many have not been executed for, say, more than five years.

“We were shocked that some have been languishing for 13 to 14 years because nobody can confirm if they are to be executed or if their death sentences have been commuted to life,” he added.

He pointed out that only very few of the cases that had been stuck were due to delays in the courts because the courts had been getting more and more efficient.

Once a judgment is made, the appeal process (at Federal Court level) takes place very fast. (After the appeals process, the only possible reprieve is from the Pardons Board.)

Shafee said Suhakam was also monitoring people with “natural life sentences”, which means that the person will die in prison with no chance of ever getting out.

“To us, that is a very cruel kind of sentence because surely, there must be an end to punishment.

“Otherwise, it should be a death sentence; that is, if you support a death sentence. So we are suggesting that the natural life sentence be removed,” he added.

Individuals can be sentenced to natural life for offences under the Firearms (Increased Penalties) Act etc.