Malaysia urges neighbours to review execution of drug couriers, says people who use drugs need hospitals, not prisons

By Malay Mail

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Having halted the mandatory death sentence on drug-related convictions, the Malaysian government is asking other countries to do the same.

De facto Law Minister Datuk Liew Vui Keong said governments needed to review their laws that provide for the execution of drug traffickers to discern between the masterminds and those being used to deliver the illicit substances.

“There are far-reaching implications of this, and mainly, if you are a drug addict or abuser, you need medical treatment and not imprisonment,” Liew told reporters after attending the Malaysian Human Rights Commission’s commemoration of the International Human Rights Day at the Sheraton Hotel here.

He said drug lords should be punished accordingly, and consideration given to drug couriers.

“For drug mules who have gone in for just a few hundred ringgit to a country, with most of them duped and led to do all these things, I definitely do not think they deserved to be hanged.

“They deserved to be sentenced to imprisonment, not hanged,” Liew added.

He said there were many cases in which the drug courier was presumed to have full knowledge that the goods they were transporting were illegal substances punishable with death.

“They love to use this word, presumption. They are talking about importing drugs into their country without even producing a shred of evidence that you are importing or trafficking all these things.