Scrapping death for drugs not wise: IGP
Published on: Friday, August 28, 2015
Kuala Lumpur: Bukit Aman supports a review of the mandatory death sentence for drug offences, but wants the penalty to remain a legal option.Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, said abolishing the death sentence would send a wrong signal to drug dealers."We would support the proposed review but we'd prefer the death sentence to still be made available to the courts.
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"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 said when asked to comment on calls to review the death sentence for drug offences.In Malaysia, those who traffic in drugs can be sentenced to death by hanging upon conviction.Former IGP Tun Hanif Omar said the death penalty for drug offences had to be reviewed entirely.
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"There are so many cases where the mandatory death was imposed but it has not stopped people from risking it in order to make money," he said.Jail sentences would also not deter drug trafficking, he added.
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"We can consider putting them (drug traffickers) under a very long prison term but are we prepared to do what the US has done to drug traffickers?" he asked.According to Hanif, the United States placed drug offenders in dungeons far away from light and company.On the British legal framework on which Malaysia's judiciary is based, Hanif said the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also had conflicting views on the death penalty at different points in history."They too experimented with and without the death penalty but the ultimate goal is to find a way to solve the root of the problem and deter people from committing the offence," he said.Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Paul Low recently called for the mandatory death sentence to be reviewed for drug offences, noting that the rising number of convictions had raised questions as to the effectiveness of the death sentence as a deterrent to drug trafficking.Meanwhile, Malaysia was in the news in Mexico recently due to three Mexican brothers due to be hanged in Johor for drug trafficking.The Federal Court in Putrajaya upheld the Court of Appeal's guilty decision against three brothers in April, and the Mexican ambassador to Malaysia Carlos Felix Corona found himself inundated with interview requests from 32 media agencies from his country.Luis Alfonso, 47, Simon, 40, and Jose Regino Gonzalez Villareal, 37, came to Johor in February 2008 to work at a factory in Senai Industrial Park but were caught by police two weeks later.They were charged with manufacturing about 30kg of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.Since their arrest, the men lost contact with home.Mexican journalist Victor Hugo Michel broke the news in the country in 2011 and wrote a book, "To Die in Malaysia", based on the brothers' accounts, which were published in August 2013. The book, according to Michel, is now used in journalism schools in Mexico.Michel said it was while chatting with a Mexican diplomat in the United States one day that he heard about three Mexicans who were close to being on death row halfway around the world."This is the first time in history Mexicans could be hanged to death. It's not like we never had Mexicans sentenced to death overseas, but to die by hanging, that's unheard of. On top of that, it's three brothers!" he said.Malaysia, though one of 32 countries in the world to impose the death penalty for drug trafficking, is among only six countries to routinely execute drug offenders, according to an April 2015 report in The Economist.The story instantly made headlines in Mexico, and became the focus of a heated debate about whether the brothers deserved their punishment.Until then, the Gonzalez Villareal family had had no idea Luis, Simon and Regino were in such deep trouble."The family had failed to contact the brothers. All they knew was that they had gone to work in a country called Malaysia," said Michel, who visited the family after returning from Asia.When the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court decision in August 2013, the story made the headlines again back home.By then, the brothers' lives did change for the better when Corona was appointed ambassador to Malaysia.He helped to get them transferred from the Kajang prison in Selangor to the Bentong facility in Pahang, which, according to Michel, was more comfortable.Corona even wrote to Pope Francis about the brothers. Last year, the pontiff sent the brothers a rosary and medallion on Holy Thursday to lift their spirits.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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