
Activists hold heart-shaped signs in calling for the abolition of the death penalty in Indonesia. Lawyers in Malaysia welcome a proposal to abolish mandatory death sentence on drug traffickers, but say capital punishment too should be abolished. – Reuters file pic, November 19, 2015.
Criminal lawyers today threw their support behind a proposal to abolish the mandatory death sentence for drug-trafficking offences, saying it was a step in the right direction.
However, they took it a step further by urging Putrajaya to abolish capital punishment for all serious crimes.
They said the aim of sentencing was to serve as a deterrent and to rehabilitate criminals to be useful citizens in society, but taking one’s life was a form of retaliation by the state against the offender.
They also doubted that the mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking, which came into force about 30 years ago, had helped check the drugs menace. Read more