Nearly Half of Individuals Sentenced to Death in Malaysia Are Foreigners

“In Putrajaya once the judge told me about the sentence, oh my god, I don’t want to use that word, gantung (hanging). Purposely, I looked to the other side. For me, as a mother, I want my son to come back before I close my eyes.”

These were the words of the mother of a man on Malaysian death row, talking to Amnesty International in August 2019.

A new report by the international rights organisation found that Malaysia has consistently violated human rights through their death penalty law, "the burden of [which] has largely fallen on those convicted of drug trafficking, who disproportionately include women and foreign nationals."

The organisation is urging Malaysia to fulfil its promise of abolishing the death penalty, which the organisation says consists of unjust trials, secret hangings and dubious drug convictions.

In March, Malaysia withdrew plans to eliminate the death penalty. In a new parliamentary session this month, the government is expected to remove the death penalty for only 11 of 33 offences. Amnesty International is calling for the country to get rid of it altogether.

According to the report, there are 1,281 people on death row as of February 2019, of which 44% are foreigners.

76% of those on death row are convicted of drug trafficking – more than half of them, foreigners. Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, India, the Philippines and Thailand have the highest number of nationals facing the Malaysian death penalty.

Ethnic minorities are overrepresented among convicted Malaysians, while foreign women are disproportionally affected on a whole, making up 86% of women on death row and 90% of women sentenced for drug trafficking.

“Several of these women were meant to travel to Malaysia with their partner or friend, who at the last minute had to pull out of the trip for visa or other reasons,” Shamini Darshni Kaliemuthu, executive director of Amnesty International Malaysia, said in a press conference.

“These cases were quite obviously of unwitting drug mules.”

Foreign embassies told Amnesty International that they are usually notified of the arrest of their nationals only after days sometimes, when statements have already been taken. Malaysian authorities have also failed to correctly verify the identity and nationality of defendants, resulting in them not being able to seek assistance from their consular authorities at the time of the arrest.

The report has cited language as a major issue for foreigners facing Malaysian trials.

In one case, a foreign woman had all her questions answered by her boyfriend during interrogation because only he could speak English. She was sentenced to death, while he was later released.

Another case that emphasises the complications of a language barrier is that of Hoo Yew Wah, a Malaysian national of Chinese ethnicity sentenced to death for possessing methamphetamine. His conviction was based on a statement he made in Mandarin at the time of his arrest. There was no lawyer present and the police had written it down in Malay. In court, Hoo Yew Wah contested the statement, saying that he was tortured by police to get him to sign it. He claims police broke his finger during interrogation and threatened to beat up his girlfriend.

"Our research found a pattern of unfair trials and secretive hangings. From allegations of torture and other ill-treatment to an opaque pardons process, it's clear the death penalty is a stain on Malaysia's criminal justice system,” said Kaliemuthu.

Since July 2018, the Malaysian government has imposed a moratorium on executions countrywide. The fate of those on death row is still unsure.

Research by Amnesty International has found that the death penalty doesn’t successfully act as a unique deterrent. It also doesn’t deter drug use nor effectively prevent drug-related deaths.

Among other measures, the organisation instead recommends making drug control laws and policies that target the root of the issue by “overcoming structural sources of vulnerability, stigma and discrimination that affect people who use drugs or who engage in the drug trade, especially women and those belonging to marginalised and disadvantaged communities.”

Find Edoardo on Twitter and Instagram.