Would you kill for pot?

Flying into Kuala Lumpur with Malaysia Airlines there is an announcement: “Drug Trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty. Welcome to Malaysia.” Malaysia would definitely kill for pot.

In Malaysia, as in 21 other countries in the world, people who use or possess relatively small quantities of drugs, including cannabis, are sentenced to death. These sentences are mandatory: judges have no possibility to invoke any extenuating circumstance. Furthermore, the usual burden of proof is reversed so that an individual is presumed to be guilty unless he or she can prove otherwise.

• On December 8 2009, Abd Jalal Mohamad, 38 years old was sentenced to death for trafficking 4,8 kilos of cannabis three years ago.
• On December 11 2009, Ramli Kasron, 41 years old, was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of trafficking over 4 kilos of cannabis in 2006.
• On December 17 2009, Muhammad Khairul Esa Jemali, 22 years old, was sentenced to be hanged until death after finding him guilty of trafficking 316 grams of cannabis, in 2008.
• On December 28 2009, Shahrul Izani Suparman, 25 years old, was given the death sentence after he was found guilty of trafficking 622 grams in 2003, when he was 19 years old.

Amnesty International has estimated that some 300 convicted prisoners await execution on death row in Malaysia, most for drug-related offences. Now an international campaign has been mounted against death sentences and executions for drugs, in Malaysia and anywhere else. The campaign will make every shameful execution a national embarrassment for Malaysia and any other nation guilty of killing people for drugs.

•  Menghentikan Ganja Eksekusi = ‘Stop the Ganja Executions’ in Malay.

•  Campaign targets Malaysia to end death penalty for drug offences.

•  Malaysians Against Death Penalty & Torture (MADPET)

•  Singapore: Yong Vui Kong – Appeal to commute sentence.

Tags: Busts, Campaigns, Executions, Law, Prisoners