End death penalty quickly, Bar urges govt

Source: Free Malaysia Today (19 December 2020)

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/12/19/end-death-penalty-quickly-bar-urges-govt/

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Bar wants the government to speed up the legislative process to abolish the death penalty and bring about certainty to those on Death Row.

Its president Salim Bashir said this group of prisoners had to undergo psychological torture from the time the capital punishment was imposed by the courts to the day it is carried out, which sometimes takes more than a decade.

It is estimated that more than 1,000 prisoners are now awaiting execution in Malaysia.

“Hopefully, the government will make its decision soon to bring closure to their long wait,” Salim said.

He said that there had been a moratorium on carrying out hangings since 2018, pending a decision on the abolition of the death penalty.

Salim said it also took time for such prisoners to exhaust their appeals before the courts and clemency applications.

“Previously, executions were carried out after a long wait when convicts were old and sick and this was considered to be ruthless,” he said.

Salim was speaking days after convicted drug trafficker Chu Tak Fai, who spent 27 years in jail, including 12 years on death row, was finally given his freedom.

The 50-year-old Hong Kong national left for home last week after the Sultan of Kedah gave him a final pardon.

Chu had his capital punishment commuted to natural life imprisonment in 2006 and later to life imprisonment for 20 years.

The jail term was to begin from 2016. In March this year, the sultan granted him his freedom.

The bill to abolish the mandatory death penalty for 11 serious offences was scheduled to have been tabled at the March parliamentary sitting this year. However, the change in government delayed the matter.

The bill had proposed that a jail term of up to 30 years be imposed once an accused is sentenced for offences like murder and drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, rights group, Eliminating Deaths and Abuse in Custody Together (EDICT), said many were not as lucky as Chu and no one could fathom the pain and agony that he went through while in isolation in Death Row.

“Chu would have remained unproductive during the prime years of his life in prison,” said its chairman M Visvanathan.

Visvanathan also said long term inmates should be allowed to assimilate with the local community like first working with prison staff and later taking up jobs outside.

“Our prison reform is long overdue and now is the opportune time to take progressive steps,” he added.