Malaysia ranked 10th among 23 countries in death sentencing

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is ranked 10th among 23 countries that applies the death sentence worldwide according to the 2016 Death Sentences and Executions Report by Amnesty International Malaysia (AIM).
AIM executive director K. Shamini Darshni said Malaysia recorded nine executions last year with 1,122 individuals currently on death row.
"The Home Ministry had in Oct, last year, informed Parliament that Malaysia executed six people in 2014, one in 2015 and nine as of Sept 2016.
"The disclosure was the first time executions have been disaggregated by year in recent memory and has provided an insight into the magnitude and true extent of Malaysia's use of the death penalty," she told reporters during the presentation of the report, here, yesterday.
She further said despite draft legislation to reform death penalty laws in the country which was announced in November 2015, it has yet to be introduced in Parliament.
"On March 23, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and de facto law minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said had announced that the government was looking to allow judges sentencing discretion in drug trafficking cases where the mandatory death penalty is currently applied.
"However, while the move could result in a significant reduction in the use of the death penalty, the authorities should not limit reform to drug trafficking offences only," she said.
Citing the hurried execution of brother B. Rames and B. Suthar on March 15 while their clemency application was still pending, Shamini called on the government to established a moratorium on all executions as a first step towards full abolition of the death penalty.
Despite Amnesty International Malaysia's efforts in the country which saw two prisoners, a Nigerian and a local commuted from their death sentence in 2016, she said the number of executions carried out the same year was a considerable increase from the previous years.
"The global report showed that executions worldwide had deceased by 37% from 1,634 people in 2015 to 1,032 people last year.
"Whereas Malaysia recorded 36 mandatory death sentences being meted out by judges including 17 for drug trafficking during the same period," she added.