The Malaysian Bar’s International Malaysia Law Conference (“IMLC”) 2026 takes place from 27 to 30 Oct 2026 at MITEC, Kuala Lumpur.
By Iqbal Harith Liang, Fahri, Azzat & Co
The session commenced with the moderator, Abdul Rashid Ismail, introducing the three speakers.
First, the moderator introduced Dato’ Dr Punitha Silivarajoo, Deputy Director General (Policy and Development) of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department. Dato’ Dr Punitha Silivarajoo is responsible for policy and law reforms in the Prime Minister’s Department. The Honourable Ramkarpal Singh (“YB Ramkarpal”) was then introduced as the next speaker — he is a Member of Parliament and previously served as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on Law and Institutional Reforms. YB Ramkarpal actively campaigned for the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. Lastly, Professor Dr Kana Sasakura (“Professor Kana”) was introduced as a speaker. Professor Kana is currently a lecturer at Konan University, Japan, as well as Secretary General of the Innocence Project Japan — an organisation dedicated to redressing wrongful convictions and advocating reform of Japan’s death penalty system.
Dato’ Dr Punitha Silivarajoo started off by explaining how Malaysia eventually abolished the mandatory death penalty. Following public calls for the abolition of the death penalty that began in 2007, legal reform eventually took place in 2023 with the enactment of the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023. She introduced the Malanjum Committee — a special committee chaired by Tan Sri Richard Malanjum that was established to review alternative sentences to the mandatory death penalty. Dato’ Dr Punitha Silivarajoo also shared how the Federal Court had to review the sentences imposed on 906 death row inmates. Of these 906 inmates, 863 had their sentences commuted. This could be achieved due to the Federal Court’s diligence in conducting back-to-back proceedings to hear such review cases. Dato’ Dr Punitha Silivarajoo also stated that she is currently working towards law reform concerning detainees under section 97 of the Child Act who are detained at the pleasure of the Ruler. She is looking to set a maximum detention period of 20 years for such detainees.
YB Ramkarpal followed up by explaining that apart from abolishing the mandatory death penalty, the term of imprisonment for natural life was also abolished. He now aims to achieve total abolition of the death penalty for all cases except murder. This is driven by empirical data proving that the death penalty does not effectively deter crime. He also believes that bipartisan support for this is possible, especially since there is currently a moratorium in place which prevents executions since 2018. YB Ramkarpal, however, acknowledged that this recommendation would have friction with the existing pardon process. He explained that, once an inmate is pardoned, the inmate would be detained at the pleasure of the Ruler for an indefinite period. This is incongruous with the aim to abolish the death penalty, which seeks to substitute the death penalty with an imprisonment sentence not exceeding 40 years. YB Ramkarpal also explained that the legal reform against mandatory death penalty in Malaysia does not prevent Malaysians from being executed abroad. In this regard, YB Ramkarpal shared the practical difficulties faced by the Government of Malaysia in seeking to delay the execution of Pannir Selvam, who was convicted of a drug trafficking offence in Singapore.
Lastly, Professor Kana shared her insights on the Japanese death penalty system. She explained that the Japanese death penalty system is entirely opaque, as there are no transparent criteria governing who is selected for execution on any given day. Inmates are notified of their execution only one hour before they are hanged, while their families and lawyers are informed only afterwards. Aside from that, death row inmates in Japan face harsh conditions of detention as they are placed under solitary confinement. Professor Kana also shared that 83.1% of the Japanese public believe that capital punishment is unavoidable and must be retained. This translates into the lack of political will to reform the Japanese death penalty system. In 2024, the Roundtable for Reflecting upon the Death Penalty System of Japan published a report with the unanimous conclusion that the death penalty system in Japan must not be maintained in its present form. Despite this report, the call for reform was rejected by the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary. Professor Kana ended her speech by expressing hope that Japan could emulate Malaysia’s legislative reforms to abolish the mandatory death penalty.
The moderator then commenced the question-and-answer session by directing a question to YB Ramkarpal. He was asked whether Malaysia could emulate Japan’s mechanism for reviewing wrongful convictions in death penalty cases. YB Ramkarpal explained that there is a review mechanism in the existing legal framework, but acknowledged that it imposes a notoriously high threshold. He agreed that there should be an easier mechanism to introduce new evidence for death penalty cases so that wrongful convictions may be redressed.
The session was concluded with a word of thanks from the moderator to the speakers.
*This article reports on Breakout Session 3, Stream A: Law and Society.