It takes less than 100 days to abolish death penalty, Suaram tells Putrajaya

(MMO) – The Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition should be able to put an end to the death penalty within its first 100 days of government, along with 20 other reforms urgently needed to uphold human rights in Malaysia, a watchdog said today.

Kua Kia Soong, director of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), said the top priority of human rights reforms that the government should address is the loss of life, including deaths in custody, police shootings and scrapping the death penalty.

“I think to call for a repeal of the death penalty in fact doesn’t take a 100 days, to call for moratorium on death penalty also doesn’t have to take a 100 days,” he said at the launch of Suaram’s Malaysia Human Rights Report 2017.

“We hope the abolition of the death penalty will be an immediate thing and a moratorium at least while these laws are not changed, to ensure no more deaths, no more prisoners are hanged from now onwards,” he added.