No proof death penalty deters crime, says Malaysian law minister

LONDON — Capital punishment is not a solution to crime as there is no proof that the death penalty is an effective deterrent, said Malaysia's de facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong.

Speaking to Malaysian students in London, Mr Liew cited figures on the number of inmates in prison and on death row to illustrate his point.

“There are 65,222 prisoners and 1,281 are on death row as of October this year.

“However, a week before that, there were 59,997 prisoners and 1,279 death row inmates.

“There was an increase of 5,225 prisoners and two death row inmates in a span of one week only,” he said.

Mr Liew said this during a dialogue titled Abolition of Death Penalty: Way Forward with the United Kingdom and Eire Malaysian Law Student’s Union at the High Commission of Malaysia.

His London stopover is enroute to Italy, where he will head the Malaysian delegation for the 11th international meeting of justice ministers at the 'A World without the Death Penalty' conference, which began on Nov 26 and will end on Dec 1.

He said capital punishment will always be a controversial topic as many quarters had strong opinions on the matter.

Mr Liew said Putrajaya under Pakatan Harapan was very much committed to abolishing the death penalty.

“After the cabinet decision was made on Oct 10, I made an announcement that the death penalty in all laws in this country will be abolished and coincidently, the World Day against the Death Penalty also fell on the same day,” he said.

To date, he said there were 32 offences punishable by death under the Penal Code, Strategic Trade Act 2010, Arms Act 1960, Firearms (Increased Penalties) 1971, Armed Forces Act 1972, Dangerous Drug Act 1952, Kidnapping Act 1961 and Water Services Industry Act 2006.
 
Mr Liew said miscarriages of justice could also occur should innocent people be wrongly sentenced to death.
 
He cited the example of a 17-year-old Korean student who was almost sent to the gallows for drug trafficking in Seremban, Negri Sembilan.

He said the youth could have died if a police officer, who was a prime witness in the trial, had not admitted he had lied to the court.

“If an innocent man is sentenced to death, it means that the guilty one is still at large,” said Mr Liew, adding that the federal government wanted to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole. MALAYSIAN INSIGHT