PETALING JAYA, Oct 11 — Malaysia should abolish the mandatory death penalty for drug cases at the next Parliament sitting as a pledge to improve human rights here, Amnesty International (AI) said today after the government announced its plans to allow judges a choice in sentencing.
AI Malaysia acting executive director Gwen Lee said many drug cases involve people from lower income groups and that it would be unfair if they had to pay with their lives for such crimes. She added that it would be a good first step towards abolishing the draconian punishment.
She cited the case of one Hoo Yew Wah, a poor Johorean currently on death row for drug possession charges in 2005, as an example of such cases.
“The situation is no different in Malaysia, where it is often those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds who end up paying the price of the death penalty.
“The mandatory death penalty on drug is very important to be reviewed,” Lee said in a press conference today.
She also urged Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said to ensure the law gets tabled in Parliament this month.
The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law previously said in August that the Cabinet agreed to amend the colonial-era Dangerous Drugs Act of 1952 to give courts a choice in sentencing.
“We want total abolition, but we see this as a good step forward. We are hoping that it will be tabled and it is on the list of suggested amendments,” Lee stressed.
She said this would also help in Malaysia’s bid to be reappointed into the United Nation’s Human Rights Council.
Capital punishment is mandatory in Malaysia for murder and drug trafficking, among other crimes.
According to Azalina, a total of 651 Malaysians have been sentenced to death since 1992, most of them for drug offences.
Source: Malaysia Mail Online, October 11, 2017
Malaysia: Stop Hoo Yew Wah's death sentence
Hoo Yew Wah was arrested at just 20 years old in Malaysia. He was locked up for having drugs on him. Twelve years later, he’s on death row.
This cruelty isn’t right – let’s get clemency for Hoo Yew Wah now.
Hoo Yew Wah is now 32. While on death row, he’s written about his childhood in a disadvantaged community; leaving school at 11 and later working as a street cook. He understands his past decisions were wrong.
“I have to accept responsibility for my past actions … My friends lived a luxurious lifestyle and I wanted the same,” he says.
“If given a chance, I want to prove that I have changed. I want to look for a proper job and spend my life taking care of my mother.”
Hoo Yew Wah’s final chance at life is clemency from the Sultan of Johor State, Malaysia. He applied in April 2014, but his petition has been pending ever since.
This is where you come in. One lone voice is not enough – we need to stand with Hoo Yew Wah and get the Sultan to pardon him.
We’ve helped people like Hoo Yew Wah before. In March this year Shahrul Izani Suparman, who was sentenced to death for drug trafficking in 2009, was pardoned.
Source: Amnesty International, October 2017
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
