Death Penalty News

The sultan of the southern Malaysian state of Johor has commuted the death sentences of three Mexican brothers who were set to be hanged for drug trafficking crimes, Mexico said. After years of lobbying by Mexican diplomats, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor — one of Malaysia’s most powerful and wealthiest state rulers — commuted the men’s death sentences to life in prison, Mexico’s foreign ministry said Thursday. “This was the result of a long process and intense dialogue with Malaysian federal authorities,” it said in a statement. The brothers — Simon, Luis Alfonso and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal — were arrested in a raid on a methamphetamine lab in Johor in March 2008. RELATED |  Malaysia: Johor Sultan Grants Full Pardon To 1 Prisoner, Commutes 10 Death Sentences To Life Imprisonment The brothers, who hail from the Mexican state of Sinaloa — home to jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel — insisted they were innocent, saying t...

Luis Alfonso, Simon and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's highest court on Thursday upheld guilty verdicts and death sentences for three Mexican brothers, a Singaporean and a Malaysian convicted of manufacturing drugs. The Gonzalez Villarreal brothers - Luis Alfonso, 47, Simon, 40, and Jose Regino, 37 - were arrested in March 2008 in an industrial building in southern Malaysia where police found 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of methamphetamine and equipment for making drugs. The brothers insist they were working as cleaners and were unaware drugs were being made. Drug trafficking convictions in Malaysia carry a mandatory sentence of death by hanging. "Our decision is unanimous. Appeal dismissed against all five defendants. Conviction and sentence affirmed," Federal Court justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, speaking on behalf of a panel of judges, told the court in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya. The men were se...

Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar has consented to grant full pardon to a prisoner and commute the death sentences of 10 other prisoners to life imprisonment in conjunction with his coronation as the 5th Sultan of modern Johor Sunday. Johor State Secretary Datuk Ismail Karim said the prisoner granted full pardon, a juvenile offender when he committed a murder offence in 2004, was released on March 19 after an audience with the Johor Sultan. "Sultan Ibrahim had chaired a meeting of the Johor Pardons Board on March 5. "The meeting gave consideration to 10 cases for pardon on the death penalty under Rule 114, Prison Regulations 2000 and 13 cases for review of sentences every 4 years (KHETS) under Rule 54, Prisons Regulation 2000," he told reporters at the Sultan Ibrahim Building, Bukit Timbalan, here. Ismail said the meeting was attended by Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani and 3 other Pardon B...

3 Mexican brothers sentenced to death in Malaysia are preparing to file their last appeal before the Federal Court in Malaysia, which could hold the hearing before the end of the year, the defense said. "The hearing will most probably take place before the end of the year, the Federal Court judges have to review a lot of documents pertaining to the case," Kitson Foong, the lawyer of Mexicans Luis Alfonso, Simon and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villarreal, told Efe. According to Foong, the brothers are being held in jail in the state of Pahang, some 185 km northwest of Kuala Lumpur. The Mexicans were arrested on March 4, 2008 in a police raid in the southern city of Johor along with a Malaysian and a Singaporean citizen who have also been given the death penalty. All 5 were found in the vicinity of a ship where police agents seized 29 kilograms of methamphetamine valued at $15 million, 1/3 of which disappeared in police custody. The Gonzalez Villarreal brothers,...