IGP: Cops back death sentence review, but total scrapping a ‘step backward’

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 ― The police force backs a review of the mandatory death sentence for drug-related offences, but abolishing it would be equivalent to taking a “step backward” in the war against drugs, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has said.

Khalid said the police would prefer the death sentence to be kept as an option in the courts, noting that the scrapping of the penalty would give off the wrong signal to drug dealers, The Star daily reported today.

“We would support the proposed review but we’d prefer the death sentence to still be made available to the courts,” he was quoted saying when asked to weigh in on calls for the penalty’s review.

“The anti-drug war is ongoing as drugs continue to be a major menace threatening the young people of this country.

“Abolishing the death sentence would be a step backward,” he was quoted saying in the interview.

Tun Hanif Omar, a former Inspector-General of Police, was quoted backing the complete review of death penalty for drug offences, noting that the mandatory sentencing in multiple cases had not deterred people taking the risk to make money.

Hanif said long jail terms can be considered instead, but questioned if Malaysia is ready to take up the US model where drug traffickers are isolated in dark prison cells.

On June 11, minister Datuk Paul Low said Putrajaya should review the mandatory death sentence for drug offences as it is unfair to drug mules who are caught and hanged, while the kingpins escape

In his speech at the Asian Regional Congress on Death Penalty, the minister in the Prime Minister’s department said he was prepared to do what was necessary to change the law on drug penalties.

But Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru has said on the same day that the government has repeatedly promised a review of the death penalty in the past few years but there have been no developments since 2009.

Steven urged the government to make current data on death penalty available to the public, as the information available dates back to November 2013.

In Amnesty International’s Death Sentences and Executions Report 2014 in April, the human rights watchdog noted that at least 38 people in Malaysia were sentenced to death and two executed last year.

It added that 70 per cent of these convictions were for drug-related offences.