Malaysia government agreed to take a rare move against capital punishment in Asia by abolishing the death penalty for all crimes and halt all pending executions.
More than 1,200 people are on death row in Malaysia, which mandates hanging as punishment for a wide range of crimes including murder, drug trafficking, treason, kidnapping and acts of terror.
Law Minister Liew Vui Keong announced that the Cabinet had agreed to abolish the death penalty and that amendments to laws with capital punishment were expected to be presented when Parliament resumes Monday.
"All death penalty will be abolished. Full stop," he said as cited from Channel News Asia report (Oct 11).
Amnesty International said the move would be a major advance but urged the government to "completely abolish the death penalty for all crimes, with no exceptions".
It said the death penalty has been a "terrible stain" on Malaysia's human rights record, and death row prisoners often must wait years for their appeals to be processed.
Human rights group's secretary-general, Kumi Naidoo said in a statement, "There is no time to waste, the death penalty should have been consigned to the history books long ago".
Amnesty International ranked Malaysia 10th in the use of the death penalty among the 23 countries that carried out capital punishment in 2016.
Between 2007 and 2017, 35 individuals were hanged, the New Straits Times newspaper said.
A total of 1,267 prisoners are on death row, making up 2.7 per cent of the 60,000-strong prison population.
Many Asian countries such as China and neighbouring Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, still impose capital punishment, while 142 countries worldwide have rejected it.
Sources: channelnewsasia.com, aljazeera.com, usnews.com