Malaysia announced on June 10 that it will abolish the mandatory death sentence for drug offences and murder among others, and leave the sentencing to the judge.
The response has been immediate. Although a moratorium has been in place for executions since 2018, for the most part, the news has been hailed locally and internationally as a much-needed progressive move to address the disparity in sentencing, especially for drug offences.
It also signifies a major step back from the policies brought about by the United States-inspired War on Drugs. This comes on top of months of chatter on legalising marijuana for medical purposes, another move that shows Malaysia is adopting a more nuanced take on drugs. More importantly, human rights activists hope that the abolishment of the mandatory death sentence will address some of the damage ensuing from the country's harsh zero-tolerance drug trafficking policies from the 1980s.
Samantha Chong, a lawyer who deals with drug
The High Court on Thursday (Oct 13) was told that the Sessions Court judge, who convicted former Repco Holdings Bhd chairman Low Thiam Hock of market manipulation, had misdirected himself in not considering Low’s expert defence witness testimony, which had purportedly managed to rebut the prosecution or the Securities Commission Malaysia's (SC) expert witness testimony.
The publisher and the author of the book “Gay is Okay! A Christian Perspective” on Tuesday succeeded in their bid to remove the ban imposed on the book by the Home Minister in 2020