Malaysia | Task force to reassess death penalty

A study will be conducted using an evidence-based approach involving all relevant stakeholders.

PETALING JAYA: The government will establish a task force under the criminal law reform committee to conduct a comprehensive study of the death penalty.

In a written parliamentary reply, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said the study would be conducted using an evidence-based approach involving all relevant stakeholders, including the families of death row inmates and victims’ families.

She said the decision to form the task force on July 9 followed engagement sessions in April with various stakeholders as the government recognised the need for a clearer policy direction on the complete abolition of the death penalty.

The government abolished the mandatory death penalty in July 2023 through the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023.

Azalina said a total of 906 death row inmates were subsequently identified as eligible to apply for a review of their sentences, with the Federal Court commuting the sentences of 863 inmates as of last October.

“However, 49 inmates still face the death penalty, and this number may rise if a comprehensive policy solution is not developed,” Azalina said.

She was responding to a question from Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid about efforts to completely abolish the death penalty in Malaysia.

Azalina said the April engagement sessions, involving government agencies, the legal fraternity, NGOs, and civil society organisations, were aimed at gathering feedback on the direction of the death penalty in Malaysia, including considerations on implementation and human rights.

The sessions resulted in proposals for a more in-depth study, especially given the number of inmates still awaiting execution.

Azalina confirmed that the moratorium on executions, implemented in 2018, remained in effect.

The abolition of the mandatory death penalty removed the compulsory sentence for 11 offences, including murder and terrorism, allowing judges the discretion to impose alternative punishments such as 30 to 40 years’ imprisonment and caning.

The law also removed the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, although it remains an option at judges’ discretion.

Following these reforms, data from Parliament showed that Malaysia’s death row population fell by nearly 90%, with many sentences converted to long-term imprisonment.

Groups such as Amnesty International have continued to call for the complete abolition of the death penalty, raising concerns about its limited deterrent effect and the risk of wrongful convictions.

Source: freemalaysiatoday.com, Staff, July 22, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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