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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Malaysia ends mandatory death penalty for serious crimes | Malaysia ends mandatory death penalty for serious crimes |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| There has been a moratorium on executions in Malaysia since 2018 | There has been a moratorium on executions in Malaysia since 2018 |
| Malaysia's parliament has voted to remove the country's mandatory death penalty, potentially sparing more than 1,300 prisoners on death row. | Malaysia's parliament has voted to remove the country's mandatory death penalty, potentially sparing more than 1,300 prisoners on death row. |
| The country has had a moratorium on executions since 2018. | The country has had a moratorium on executions since 2018. |
| But lawmakers on Monday overwhelmingly voted to remove the death penalty as the mandatory sentence for 11 serious crimes, including murder and terrorism. | |
| Judges will retain discretion to impose capital punishment in exceptional cases. | |
| But for the most serious crimes, the courts will now hand down life imprisonment sentences of up to 40 years, or corporal punishment such as caning, lawmakers said. | |
| The reforms still need to clear the country's upper house but are widely expected to pass. | |
| Speaking in parliament on Monday, Malaysia's deputy law minister said capital punishment was irreversible and had not worked as a deterrent to crime. | Speaking in parliament on Monday, Malaysia's deputy law minister said capital punishment was irreversible and had not worked as a deterrent to crime. |
| "The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring," said Ramkarpal Singh. | "The death penalty has not brought the results it was intended to bring," said Ramkarpal Singh. |
| There are 34 criminal offences punishable by death in Malaysia - 11 of which before Monday carried the mandatory death penalty. | |
| The new laws once enacted will apply retrospectively, allowing those on death row 90 days to seek a review of their sentences. | |
| There are currently 1,341 such prisoners in the country, more than 60% of whom had received a mandatory sentence according to an Amnesty International assessment. | |
| The legislative process of overturning the country's death penalty began last June, when the former government under Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced it would abolish the death penalty as a mandatory punishment. | |
| However Malaysia has been debating abolishing capital punishment for over a decade now. The two critical bills to reform the laws were introduced into parliament last week following a year of political debate. | |
| Rights groups have hailed the reform as a major step forward for Malaysia and the wider South East Asia region, with Human Rights Watch saying it hoped it might influence neighbouring countries. | |
| Last year, neighbouring city-state Singapore executed 11 people for drug trafficking offences. | |
| The military government in Myanmar also handed down its first death sentences in decades, executing four pro-democracy activists. | |
| According to official data, some 1,318 prisoners were hanged between 1992 and 2023 in Malaysia. | According to official data, some 1,318 prisoners were hanged between 1992 and 2023 in Malaysia. |
| Related Topics | Related Topics |
| Capital punishment | Capital punishment |
| Malaysia | Malaysia |