Malaysia end mandatory death penalty for murder, oda serious crimes

Malaysia parliament don vote to remove di kontri mandatory death penalty. Dis potentially spare more dan 1,300 prisoners wey dey on death row.

Di kontri bin don pause executions since 2018.

But lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly vote to remove di death penalty as di mandatory sentence for 11 serious crimes wey include murder and terrorism.

Judges go retain discretion to impose capital punishment in exceptional cases.

But for di most serious crimes, di courts go now hand down life imprisonment sentences of up to 40 years, or corporal punishment such as caning, lawmakers tok.

Di kontri upper house still need to clear di reforms, but expectation be say dem go pass am.

For parliament on Monday, Malyasia deputy law minister tok say capital punishment dey irreversible and add say e neva work as sometin wey dey stop crime.

“Di death penalty neva bring di results wey e suppose bring,” Ramkarpal Singh tok.

Na 34 criminal offences dey punishable by death for Malaysia. Before Monday, 11 of dis offences carri di mandatory death penalty.

Once dem enact di new laws, e go give pipo wey dey death row 90 days to seek review of dia sentences.

E get 1,341 prisoners wey dey death row for di kontri, more dan 60% of dem bin receive mandatory sentence according to Amnesty International assessment.

Di legislative process wey overturn di kontri death penalty begin for last June, wen di former goment under Prime Minister Ismail Sabir Yaakob announce say dem go abolish di death penalty as mandatory punishment.

However, Malaysia bin don dey debate say dem wan abolish capital punishment for more dan 10 years now. Dem introduce di two critical bills to reform di laws for parliament last week afta one year of political debate.

Right groups don hail di reform as major step forward for Malaysia and di wider South East Asia region, and Human Rights Watch tok say dem hope e fit influence neighbouring kotnris.

Last year, neighbouring city-state Singapore execute 11 pipo sake of drug trafficking offence.

Di military goment for Myanmar also hand down dia first death sentence in decades, as dem execute four pro-democracy activist.

According to official data, dem hang some 1,318 prisoners between 1992 and 2023.