Malaysia abolishes mandatory death penalty

Abolishing the country's extensive obligatory death sentences was approved by Malaysia's parliament on Monday, potentially sparing the lives of more than 1,300 people who are now on execution row.

According to Reuters, the nation will work to ratify laws that will reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty and do away with natural life sentences. Rights organizations have expressed cautious support for the initiative.

Malaysia has stopped carrying out executions since making a commitment to completely abolish the death penalty in 2018.

A year later, the government reversed course, saying it would keep the death penalty but would allow courts to substitute other penalties of their choosing. This was due to political pressure from some parties.

The recently passed amendments provide for the whipping and 30- to 40-year sentences as alternatives to the death penalty. All prior sentences that called for imprisonment for the entirety of the offender's natural life will be replaced by the new jail term.

The legal definition of life imprisonment in Malaysia is a fixed period of 30 years.

According to Reuters, several significant crimes that do not result in death, such as the discharge and trafficking of a firearm, and kidnapping, will no longer be eligible for the death penalty.

Malaysia's action comes as some of its Southeast Asian neighbours have increased the use of the death penalty. Singapore executed 11 people for drug offences last year, and military-ruled Myanmar executed four anti-junta activists, the first such executions in decades.

Ramkarpal Singh, Malaysia's deputy law minister, claimed that the death penalty had been an inadequate deterrent because it was an irreversible sentence.

The modifications were approved to cover 34 offences, including murder and drug trafficking, that are presently capital crimes. Eleven of them are subject to it as a necessary penalty.

More than 1,300 people, including those who have exhausted all prior legal appeals and those facing the death penalty or life imprisonment, may request a sentencing review under the new regulations.

The approval of the changes, according to Dobby Chew, executive coordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, was a positive first step toward the complete abolishment of the death penalty.

“For the most part, we are on the right track for Malaysia – it’s a reform that has been a long time coming,” he said.

“We should not deny the fact that the state is killing someone and whether the state should have this kind of power… having the mandatory punishment abolished is a good time for us to start reflecting about it.”

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