The Malaysian parliament has voted to suspend the “automatic” death penalty for certain crimes. Several NGOs welcome this decision, which they see as a step towards the abolition of the death penalty in this Asian country.
The “automatic” death penalty was suspended in Malaysia, by a vote of parliament on Monday 3 April. In this country, convictions for certain crimes, such as murder or drug trafficking, for example, resulted “automatically” in the death penalty. Since 2018, Malaysia has enforced a moratorium on executions, and this new decision could spare nearly 1,300 prisoners on death row in Malaysia.
This removal of the death penalty as a “mandatory sentence” for certain crimes will allow the courts to pronounce instead life sentences or even corporal punishment according to the legislators, who voted for this measure by an overwhelming majority. In Malaysia, there are 34 criminal offenses carrying the death penalty, and it is a mandatory sentence for eleven serious crimes detailed by local law. Among these crimes: murder, terrorism, drug trafficking. For the moment, the Senate must still decide on this decision, and barring surprise, it should be validated.
Major breakthrough in Asia
Monday, April 3 before parliament, the Deputy Minister of Justice himself declared that the death penalty was irreversible and had no deterrent effect on crime. For more than a decade now, Malaysia has been debating the abolition of the death penalty. This decision by the Malaysian parliament is therefore not an abolition of the death penalty, but it remains “an important step forward” in terms of human rights, according to several NGOs. They speak of a major breakthrough for Malaysia and even in Southeast Asia. For the time being, in this region of the world, the death penalty is abolished only in Cambodia and the Philippines.
Human Rights Watch hopes in particular to influence neighboring countries of Malaysia. Last year in Southeast Asia, Singapore executed eleven people for drug-related offences. Myanmar also handed down its first death sentences in decades, as the military junta came to power.
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“This is an important breakthrough that will spark serious conversations in the halls of upcoming ASEAN meetings.explains Phil Robertson, the director of the NGO Human Rights Watch in Asia. Malaysia should show regional leadership by encouraging other ASEAN governments to rethink their continued use of the death penalty, starting with Singapore which recently embarked on a post-Covid execution spree.”
“Other countries in the region, such as Thailand, have not used the death penalty recently, but are still under pressure to remove provisions that allow the use of the death penalty.”
Phil Robertson, director of the NGO Human Rights Watch in Asiaat franceinfo
Malaysia will have to take the next step after that, which is to completely abolish the death penalty, and the government should make plans on how to do that over the coming year. Human Rights Watch and other NGOs say they are closely scrutinizing the forthcoming debates on the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia.