Abolishment of Mandatory Death Penalty

KENYATAAN MEDIA LAPORAN DEATH PENALTY_v3 (P) (1)

Today, the government of Malaysia issued a statement for the abolishment of mandatory death penalty.

This means that the death penalty is no longer “mandatory” but optional and subject to court’s discretion.

Prior to this, certain crimes such as drug trafficking, terrorism, kidnapping and possession of firearms are subject to mandatory death penalty, which means if found guilty, court can only impose death penalty.

Now that mandatory death penalty is abolished, the court will have the option to impose other punishments such as life imprisonment.

This is a good news for human rights since certain circumstances such as Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam who has low IQ got executed due to mandatory death penalty (although Nagaen’s case happened in Singapore).