SECTION 27 — Commencement of sentence

(1) Where the offender has not been remanded in custody or where no arrest or imprisonment warrant is issued against him at the time of judgment in the circumstances authorized by the Criminal Procedure Code, no sentence of loss of liberty may be enforced until it has become final. (2) No woman who is with child or who has been recently delivered may begin to serve her sentence until six weeks after delivery. (3) A woman with child already remanded in custody shall continue to benefit from the regime of remand in custody until the expiry of the period referred to in Subsection 2 above. (4) Where a husband and wife have been sentenced for the same or different offences to imprisonment for less than a year, and are not in custody at the time of sentence, and show that they have a fixed common residence and a child under the age of 18 (eighteen) supported by them and in their charge, the sentence on one may be suspended until expiry of the sentence on the other.