Malaysia repeals mandatory death penalty

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By Editor

 
On April 11, the Dewan Negara, or Malaysian upper house of parliament, passed two bills reforming death penalty sentencing, following  their passage by the Dewan Rakyat, or lower house, on April 3. The bills will now be sent to the king to be signed into law.

 

Malaysia previously retained the death penalty for 33 offenses. The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Bill 2023 removes the mandatory death penalty for the 12 offences that carried it, including drug trafficking, murder, treason, and terrorism. The bill also removes the death penalty entirely as an option for seven offenses, including attempted murder and kidnapping. “Natural life imprisonment,” which incarcerates prisoners until death, will be replaced by 30- to 40-year prison terms.

 

However, the new law retains the death sentence for drug trafficking under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, the most common conviction for death row prisoners.

 

For most offences that will retain the death sentence, judges will be granted the discretion to impose either the death penalty or a prison sentence of 30 to 40 years and caning.

 

Parliament also passed the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of the Federal Court) Bill 2023, which will allow prisoners sentenced to death or natural life imprisonment to apply for resentencing by the Federal Court within 90 days of the law being formally published, which the court can extend. The Federal Court, which will not review the conviction itself, but can either uphold the original sentence or replace it with 30 to 40 years in prison. Prisoners will only be allowed to apply once.

 

Law Minister Azalina Othman Said, who put forward the bills, reported that the new laws will affect about 1,340 prisoners currently on death row and over 100 serving natural life sentences, including 840 death row prisoners who have exhausted all appeals. More than a third of death row prisoners are foreign nationals.

 

Malaysia has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 2018, having last carried out a death sentence by hanging in 2017. But with the mandatory death penalty in effect, the tally of death row prisoners has grown. Malaysia was one of only 11 countries that imposed the death penalty for drug-related offences in 2021.

 

Thailand has over 500 prisoners on death row, according to data from the Department of Corrections.  Capital punishment can be applied to 35 crimes in Thailand, including murder and drug trafficking.  The last execution was carried out in 2018, a 26 year old man by lethal injection.  He had been found guilty of murdering a 17-year-old boy in 2012.

 

Source:  https://royalcoastreview.com/2023/04/world-news-malaysia-repeals-mandatory-death-penalty/

 

-- © Copyright Royal Coast Review 2023-04-15

 

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