Human Rights Commissioner condemns use of death penalty in Malaysia

Bärbel Kofler, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement on 31 March on the use of the death penalty in Malaysia:

Zusatzinformationen

I am shocked by the execution of three young people on 25 March 2016. The executions are all the more disturbing because the debate on abolishing the death penalty in Malaysia had recently gathered pace once again.

The death penalty is an inhuman and cruel form of punishment. It has no place in the 21st century. The German Government rejects the death penalty under all circumstances as an inhumane form of punishment and will continue to campaign with its partners in the EU for its worldwide abolition.

I call on the Malaysian Government to refrain from further use of the death penalty and encourage it to continue on the path to its abolition.

Background information:

Three individuals sentenced to death were executed in Malaysia on 25 March 2016. Aged 34, 35 and 37, they received the death penalty in February 2014 for a murder committed in 2005. Malaysia does not make information on executions public. As a result, the exact number of executions is unknown. The dates of executions are not announced in advance. In November 2015, the Malaysian Government announced that it would reduce the number of crimes automatically subject to the death penalty. Concrete draft legislation was to be presented in March 2016, but has not yet been put forward. Over 1000 people, including 12 EU citizens, who have been sentenced to death, are currently in prison in Malaysia.

The number of countries that have abolished the death penalty or no longer carry it out is growing – 102 countries around the world, more than half of all states, have completely abolished it, while a total of 140 states no longer carry out executions.

from
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2016/160331_Malaysia-Todesstrafe.html?nn=479796