How the wheel turns

Convicted activist Zulhaizam Zulkifli hugging his two sons after his release from Tapah prison under a royal pardon by Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Azlan Shah last year.

HOW often do the different Pardons Boards meet? Who are the Board members? And how does the process work?

Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri and Datuk Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Governance, Integrity and Human Rights, declined interviews, but members of three state Pardons Boards gave Sunday Star a glimpse into the process.

The Penang Pardons Board meets every six months or thereabouts, says Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, one of the three board members selected by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. As in all the states, the Ruler chairs the meetings, which are attended by the Attorney-General (A-G) or his representative, the Chief Minister and three members appointed by the Ruler. (The other two members in Penang are lawyer Lalitha Menon and former Aliran president P. Ramakrishnan.)

The Board handles, on average, between 10 and 20 petitions at each meeting and decides on them at the meeting. “We are ahead of the curve,” stresses Malik, pointing out that there is no backlog.

In Johor, says Datuk Ismail Karim, Johor state secretary and secretary of the Johor Pardons Board, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar has made it a yearly tradition to pardon prisoners. After the appeals for pardons have been submitted, the Board meets to discuss and decide, “usually once a year in conjunction with special occasions such as the Sultan’s birthday or coronation day”.

The Sultan pardoned 34 prisoners on the occasion of his coronation last year, and met them and their families.

The Governor of Penang asks each member of the Pardons Board for his or her views, says Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.

The Selangor Pardons Board meets at least two to three times a year, says a spokesman from its secretariat, whenever the supporting documents for 30 to 40 petitions are ready.

“His Royal Highness has said it could be more often,” he adds. “If it is urgently needed, they just have to write in to the Secretariat and he will accommodate.”

(The three selected members in Selangor are a former senior civil servant, a former state assemblyman who is a lawyer, and a former member of Parliament who is now an activist.)

When a prisoner has been sentenced, the appeal can be made by the prisoner, the lawyer, the family, a non-governmental organisation or, for foreigners on death row, by their embassy. According to the Selangor spokesman, the petition can be sent either to the Pardons Board secretariat or to the Ruler.

“It is the prisoners’ right,” he explains. “They can write directly to the King or the Sultan, who will accept it and then refer it to the secretariat.”

Next, the secretariat writes to the Prisons Department for details of the prisoner – when he or she was jailed, the background of the case, what the offence and sentence were, etc.

Malik adds that the papers accompanying each petition include a medical report, a report by the Director of Prisons and a report by the Prison Superintendent. But, he notes, “There are several problems with delays and the quality of the reports. In some cases there has been a lag of a year or more before the petition reaches us. Some of the medical reports are over a year old. We’ve highlighted that reports have to be up-to-date so that we have a true picture.”

The Johor Pardons Board does not entertain appeals for those charged with serious offences such as multiple murders or big-time drug dealers, says Johor state secretary Datuk Ismail Karim.

The Selangor spokesman also mentions difficulty in getting information, especially investigation papers, from the police and reports from the relevant courts. “Because of that, the petition cannot be processed immediately,” he says. Over 100 petitions have been pending since the Board’s last meeting.

But, he guarantees, no petition is left out. “It will be entertained, processed and heard by the Pardons Board.”

When all the papers are ready, the secretariat forwards them to the state legal advisor’s office, which prepares a draft of the A-G’s opinion for each petition and sends it to the Attorney-General’s Chamber (AGC).

The AGC prepares a second draft for the A-G and, once the A-G has signed the opinion, it is sent back to the state legal advisor’s office, which forwards it to the Pardons Board secretariat.

Once all the reports for a petition are prepared, a decision can be made in one meeting.

The bundles of documents for each petition are sent to the Board members at least three weeks before the sitting, says the Selangor spokesman.

“They make sure they attend the sitting, they read through, look at the facts and circumstances of the case and decide whether to agree with what the AG recommended.”

In Penang, adds Malik, the Governor goes through each petition and asks each Board member for his or her views. “He is open to our views,” he adds. “Sometimes he doesn’t agree, but many of our recommendations are accepted, especially when it comes to the reduction of sentences. It is not unusual for the Governor to reduce the sentence where there are justifying circumstances.”

The Selangor spokesman stresses that the Sultan can choose not to listen to the opinions of the Pardons Board members: “Normally he listens to their advice first but if he has strong reasons to allow or not to allow the petition, that is at his total discretion.”

When looking at a petition, says Malik, Board members “consider the offence for which the prisoner was convicted, whether the sentence appeared to be warranted, reports from the Prisons Department on whether he has been rehabilitated, and his medical condition and age.”

The Board does not look into whether there has been a miscarriage of justice, says the Selangor spokesman, “because that has already been decided in the court of law. When a prisoner is already sentenced correctly under the legal system, if he claims a miscarriage of justice, he would be blaming the system. The tendency would be for us to be more sympathetic if he admits he was wrong, repents, and is very sorry.”

In Johor, adds Datuk Ismail, the Board does not entertain appeals for those charged with serious offences such as multiple murders or big-time drug dealing. Malik agrees that there is more “reticence to interfere” with sentences in such cases.

While David Wang was on death row for trafficking in heroin, fellow-prisoners advised him on his appeal for a pardon to the Sultan of Terengganu. “They told me to say why I had gotten involved in drugs, state that I had repented and ask for a second chance,” he remembers.

In his letter, he said he had become a Christian and, if pardoned, “I wouldn’t be involved in any crime again and would start a new life.”

Wang, who was released after the Sultan commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment and had already served more than two-thirds of his term, now counsels drug addicts and prisoners. “I do what I can,” he says, “and am not involved with anything which could give me a chance to fall down again.”

Pardons Board decisions are sent to the Director of Prisons, who forwards them to the record officer. The officer tells the relevant prison official, who then informs the prisoner.

Wang still remembers the day in April, 1998 when he was told he would be released. “Escaping from death is really grace,” he says. “I really appreciate my life now.”