Media Quote
13 August 2024
Responding to the decision of Malaysia’s top court to commute Hoo Yew Wah’s sentence of imprisonment for natural life to 30 years imprisonment, Amnesty International Malaysia’s Executive Director, Katrina Jorene Maliamauv, said:
“Amnesty International Malaysia is pleased by the Federal Court’s decision today to set aside Hoo Yew Wah’s sentence of imprisonment for natural life and commute it to 30 years’ imprisonment from the point of arrest. We celebrate this positive outcome, and strongly emphasize the need for continued urgent reforms to the death penalty in Malaysia”
“Hoo Yew Wah was arrested on 31 March 2005 when he was just 20 years old, after he was found in possession of 188.35 grams of methamphetamine, and automatically presumed to be trafficking drugs. His case was riddled with human rights violations, and yet was sentenced to death for drug trafficking. He has spent almost two decades in prison. This long-awaited moment in the Federal Court of Malaysia is a glimmer of hope for Hoo Yew Wah and his family to soon be reunited again.”
“Our global campaign for Hoo Yew Wah has witnessed overwhelming support from around the world, with over 200,000 people joining the call for the commutation of his death sentence. Today’s positive outcome in his case is a reminder that there is global support for the abolition of the death penalty, and that human rights change is always possible through collective action.”
“However, the positive outcomes through the resentencing process do not minimize the systemic issues in the criminal justice system. The concerning flaws that we documented in Hoo Yew Wah’s case are common to many other existing and new death sentences for drug related offences that continue to be imposed. The government must harness the momentum arising from the resentencing process at the Federal Court to take the next step towards ending the death penalty once and for all.”
“We call on the government of Malaysia to introduce further legislative amendments to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 to bring it in line with international human rights law and standards, including by repealing the death penalty for drug-related offences and the legal presumptions of guilt. Pending this, the prosecution must immediately end seeking the death penalty as a sentence, particularly for drug-related offences.”
Background
Hoo Yew Wah was on death row at Bentong prison in Malaysia between 2011 and 2023. In March 2005, at the age of 20, he was found in possession of 188.35 grams of methamphetamine, automatically presumed to be trafficking drugs and later convicted of trafficking under section 39(b) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952.
He was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty on 12 May 2011 and all his subsequent judicial appeals were rejected. Amnesty International Malaysia has documented numerous human rights violations in Hoo Yew Wah’s case, including the lack of adequate and timely legal assistance, concerns of torture and other ill-treatment during police interrogation, and the reliance on unfair presumption of guilt, to name a few.
The organization campaigned extensively on his behalf. Since 2014, numerous letters were mailed to the Pardons Board, requesting for Hoo Yew Wah’s death sentence to be commuted especially given the countless flaws documented in his case. Almost a decade later, on 21 March 2023, Hoo Yew Wah received an official pardon by the Sultan of Johor, commuting his sentence of death to a sentence of natural life imprisonment—which was reduced by the Federal Court today to a sentence of imprisonment for 30 years.
Since 12 September 2023, the Revision of Sentence of Death and Imprisonment for Natural Life (Temporary Jurisdiction of The Federal Court) Act 2023 (Act 847) has put in-motion a resentencing process granting those already under the mandatory sentence of death and imprisonment for natural life in Malaysia an opportunity to have their sentences reviewed and possibly commuted to an alternative sentence of imprisonment between 30 and 40 years and whipping of no fewer than 12 strokes.
Amnesty International found that Malaysia was one of the 11 countries known to have imposed the death penalty for drug-related offences in 2023, which violates international laws and standards as drug-related offences do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” to which the death penalty must be restricted pending abolition.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty unconditionally, for all cases and under any circumstances, as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.