Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was reported as saying yesterday that the law would be amended accordingly and that the amendments would be tabled in Parliament next month.

MMA president Dr Koh Kar Chai said the medical fraternity had been concerned as to how certain individuals were subjected to such sentences when found guilty with no recourse to alternative sentencing that took into account the circumstances of the offence.

“We also hope that the need for medical doctors to be involved at the time of capital punishment will eventually be phased out as it runs antithesis to medical ethics for a doctor to be a part of capital punishment though it is deemed necessary to certify that a person is fit to undergo the punishment being meted out,” Koh said in a statement.

The move to abolish mandatory capital punishment was announced in June and won praise from human rights activists and bodies such as Amnesty International Malaysia.