A senior Malaysian minister on Sunday reportedly urged the government to abolish the death penalty amid outrage from rights groups.
The call came during a debate over executions — carried out in Malaysia by hanging — after Kuala Lumpur last month sought clemency from Singapore for a young Malaysian drug trafficker who is facing the gallows in the city-state.
Both Malaysia and Singapore have tough anti-drug laws and rarely seek clemency for nationals facing drug charges in other countries.
“If it is wrong to take someone’s life, then the government should not do it either,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz told the Sunday Star newspaper.
“No criminal justice system is perfect. You take a man’s life and years later, you find out that another person did the crime. What can you do?” said the senior minister.
Local rights groups have long campaigned against the death penalty, which is mandatory for murder, drug trafficking and possession of firearms among other crimes in the country. Campaigners said the sentence was inhumane.
Malaysia filed a clemency plea to Singapore last month over the case of
Yong Vui Kong, a 22-year-old who is facing the death penalty after he was convicted in 2008 of trafficking 47 grams of heroin into Singapore.
The case has received wide attention in the two countries. Yong, who was19 when he was arrested, said he has repented and pledged to campaign against drugs.
Amnesty International says Singapore has one of the highest per capita execution rates in the world. It put 420 people to death between 1991 and 2004.
Activists said Malaysia carried out 358 hangings between 1981 and 2005.
Source: Agence France-Presse, August 29, 2010
