MALAYSIA should look into abolishing the mandatory death sentence first before it can advocate for the abolishment of the law in its entirety, Malaysian Bar president Karen Cheah said.
However, for any reforms to even begin, it will require political will on the part of the government, she said.
“I think we are working step by step. The first thing we are looking at is to remove the mandatory death penalty and once there is that political will to make that change and reform, then we will advocate for all death penalties,” she told The Malaysian Insight.
“We feel that the death sentence is something that does not have any kind of rehabilitative element.
“We are supposed to rehabilitate people who have been sentenced.”
Most recently, the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian citizen with intellectual disability in Singapore, drew flak from various lawmakers and civil society groups.
He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011 under the Misuse of Drugs Act for illegally importing 42.7g of diamorphine.
Nagaenthran was caught with a bundle of heroin strapped to his thigh when entering the city-state from Malaysia via the Woodlands checkpoint in April 2009.
He was originally scheduled to be hanged in November last year but the decision sparked criticism due to his IQ level and his lawyer mounted an 11th-hour challenge at the Court of Appeal.
Singapore was accused of defying international law and norms prohibiting the execution of a person with intellectual or psychosocial disability, under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It was also asked to grant clemency to Nagaenthran on those grounds, but the republic went ahead with the execution after the latter exhausted all his appeals.
Singapore was criticised for the inhumane law, but the death sentence is also applicable in Malaysia for 33 offences, including 12 for which it is the mandatory punishment.
In recent years, it has most commonly been used for murder and drug trafficking offences.
While it may have been hypocritical for Malaysia to call on the island state to grant clemency while the same law is retained here, Cheah said there is one big difference.
In Malaysia, there is currently a moratorium on all death sentences.
“This, to me, is the big difference between the two countries,” she said.
“In our case, we have a moratorium on all death sentences. A person may have been convicted, but they will not face execution in the near future.
“In Singapore, the execution of the death penalty is carried out without the possibility of looking at a moratorium.”
Malaysia declared a moratorium on all death sentences in July 2018 as agreed to at the United Nations General Assembly.
According to data from Amnesty International, there have been 469 executions since 1957.
There are currently 1,281 people on death row across 26 detention facilities nationwide, of whom 73% are convicted for drug trafficking under section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. – May 20, 2022.
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