Friday November 3, 2017
05:34 PM GMT+8
05:34 PM GMT+8
NOVEMBER 3 — Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the statement by
the Malaysian government outlining its efforts to amend Section 39B of
the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and to provide courts with the discretion
to spare lives when imposing the death penalty. The organisation
encourages the Government of Malaysia to ensure that the proposed
amendments will fully remove the mandatory death penalty and establish a
moratorium on all executions as first critical steps towards abolition
of the death penalty.
The announcement comes after a parliamentary reply by Law Minister
Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said on 30 October 2017, stating that the
first draft of the amendment has been completed by the Attorney
General’s Chambers and is awaiting the approval of the cabinet.
The organisation also welcomes the support of the Attorney General, Tan
Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali in giving the discretionary power to the
judiciary in drug-related offences in a statement made on 31 October.
While Amnesty International believes that these amendments is a step in
the right direction, the organisation hopes that these amendments will
be implemented in a manner that is effective and far-reaching.
The organisation renews its call on the Malaysian authorities to
abolish the mandatory death penalty for all offences and restrict the
scope of the death penalty to the “most serious crimes”, which do not
include drug-related offences. International law prohibits the use of
the mandatory death penalty and restricts the use of the ultimate
punishment, in countries where it has not yet been abolished, to
intentional killing.
Amnesty International Malaysia is in fact concerned that the statement
of the Attorney General suggested that the death penalty legislative
amendments, as currently drafted, would introduce limited sentencing
discretion only for those found guilty of transporting prohibited
substances. Amnesty International’s analysis of the impact of similar
reforms implemented in Singapore since 2013 indicate that the
introduction of limited sentencing discretion that fell short of fully
abolishing the mandatory death penalty has done little to improve the
protection of human rights.
In its report Cooperate or Die; Singapore’s Flawed Reforms to the
Mandatory Death Penalty, Amnesty International found that the mandatory
death penalty continues to be extensively imposed in Singapore, and
that drug trafficking continues to involve the great majority of the
death sentences imposed in the country. In cases where information is
available, the burden of the death penalty once again appears to fall on
those with less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and convicted of
importing relatively small amounts of controlled substances.
The amendments also introduced a new section in the Singaporean Misuse
of Drugs Act, giving courts discretion to sentence persons to life
imprisonment, if found guilty of drug trafficking or importing
prohibited substances over certain amounts if they can prove their
involvement in the offence was restricted to that of a “courier”; and if
the Public Prosecutor issues a “certificate of substantive assistance”,
confirming that the convicted person has substantively assisted in
disrupting drug trafficking activities.
This not only narrows the court’s discretionary powers considerably, it
violates the right to a fair trial as it places life and death
decisions in the hands of an official who is neither a judge nor a
neutral party in the trial and should not have such powers.
It is our hope that the Malaysian authorities will make the ongoing
legislative reforms on the death penalty a meaningful opportunity to
improve the protection of human rights and adopt a comprehensive
approach on its policies on the death penalty.
Pending abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International Malaysia
renews our call on the authorities to establish a moratorium on all
executions. The government had stated that as of April 30, 2016, 1,042
people comprising 629 Malaysians and 413 foreign nationals were
sentenced to death due to murder, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking
or kidnapping; Sixteen (16) death row inmates have been executed since
2010 in Malaysia.
Even with plans to amend laws and rulers granting pardon to death row
inmates, Amnesty International Malaysia still calls for the total
abolition of the death penalty as it is proven multiple times not to
have a unique deterrent effect on crimes, and violates the Universal
Declaration of Human rights, including the right to life and the right
to live free from torture.
It is in this context that Amnesty International Malaysia welcomes the
pardon by the Sultan of Perak on November 1 of two prisoners, who have
been imprisoned for more than 16 years. Death row prisoners are usually
kept in solitary confinement once their sentence has been imposed.
In a country where information on the use of the death penalty is not
publicly available, the announcement of the pardon is a positive
development which the organisation hopes it can be replicated to allow
for greater transparency and more commutations of death sentences.
Background
Mandatory death sentences leave courts no option but to condemn drug
offenders and those convicted of murder to the gallows. Drug
trafficking does not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” to
which the use of the death penalty must be restricted under
international human rights law.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under
any circumstances, regardless of the nature of the crime, the
characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to
carry out the execution. The organisation considers the death penalty a
violation of the right to life as recognised in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment.
Pending full abolition of the death penalty, Amnesty International
calls for the government’s urgent intervention to halt all executions
and to broaden the scope of the proposed reforms to encompass all
capital offences; and to abolish the automatic presumptions of drug
possession and trafficking allowed under Section 37 of the Dangerous
Drugs Act, 1952 as initial steps.
Amnesty International has ranked Malaysia tenth in the use of the death
penalty among 23 countries that carried out capital punishment last
year.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
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