MEDIA STATEMENT – 9/1/2006
THE
DEATH PENALTY MUST BE ABOLISHED
Malaysia Must Respect the Right To Life |
MADPET
(Malaysians against Death Penalty and Torture) is deeply perturbed by
the continued imposition and carrying out of the death penalty in
Malaysia, and reiterates its call for
the abolition of the
death penalty, and a moratorium on the carrying out of all death
sentences pending abolition. On
6 December 2005, the Deputy Internal Security Minister disclosed in
Parliament that 52
people were sentenced to death from 2004 until July. Of these, 36 were
convicted for drug offences and 16 for murders. This disclosure brings
the number of persons on death row to approximately 173. In
November 2003, it was said that there were 121 persons, including 4
women, on the death row. It
was disclosed in February 2005 that over the past 24 years
358 persons have been hanged in Malaysia. Malaysia lacks many safeguards that would ensure a fair trial which make it most unsafe to sentence a person to death. There is at present no right to a phone call upon arrest, no right to immediate access to a lawyer upon arrest and no right to full disclosure (i.e. the right of access to documents and information that were obtained during the police investigation and after). In Malaysia, in practice an accused only gets access to his own cautioned statement and the first information report. The police and the prosecution do not even have a duty to make known witnesses and evidence that they may have discovered that would have assisted the accused person in his defence. Without pre-trial full disclosure, an accused is deprived of the opportunity and the means to fullly exercise his right to defend himself. Without these necessary safeguards to ensure a fair trial, it becomes a real and horrifying possibility that innocent persons will be sent to the gallows. The
death penalty has never been proven to be effective in deterring crime.
Studies conducted throughout the world have repeatedly established this
fact. Matters are made worse in the Malaysian context as the government
has in general unjustifiably and systematically witheld necessary
information on the passing of and execution of death sentences. The
government is thus preventing public
debate on the death penalty. In 2005, the UN Special Rapporteur Philip
Alston stated in his report, “ For a government to insist on a
principled defence of the death penalty but to refuse to divulge to its
own population the extent to which, and the reasons for which it is
applied is unacceptable.” As
of December 2005, 122
countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The
worldwide trend has been towards increasing awareness
of the inhumanity, brutality and irrevocability
of the death penalty. The death penalty is repugnant to human
dignity and the right to life. In 2005 , the UN Commission on Human
Rights by Resolution 2005/29 declared that the abolition of the death
penalty is essential to protect the right to life.
In the name of humanity, justice and human dignity, and in defence of the principle that all life is sacred, we call upon the Government of Malaysia to abolish the death penalty, and declare an immediate moratorium on the carrying out of all death sentences pending abolition. Charles
Hector N.
Surendran Salbiah
Ahmad for
Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (MADPET) 9th February 2006
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