Malaysian courts to halve punishments for guilty pleas

Mon, 13 Dec 2010

Kuala Lumpur - Offenders in Malaysia were soon to enjoy sentence reductions of up to half the maximum sentence if they plead guilty, officials said Monday.

Chief Justice Zaki Azmi said the necessary amendments to the criminal code procedures were currently being made, and aim to help the courts catch up with their backlogs of cases.

The new rules would be extended to cases involving serious crimes such as manslaughter and rape, court officials said, but added that they would not apply to crimes carrying the mandatory death sentence, such as murder and drug trafficking.

"The step was taken to help reduce the numbers of backlogged cases so the cases can be cleared as fast as possible," Zaki was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

He did not say when the new code would be in place.

The government last month announced plans to introduce electronic filing systems and other innovations to help the courts clear their backlog of over 58,000 civil and criminal cases.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357867,halve-punishments-guilty-pleas.html.