08 September 2008 :

lawyers and opposition legislators are among a growing number of people expressing concern over the drawn-out suffering of those on death row in Malaysia. Historically many have supported execution as a punishment for non-lethal crimes such as drug trafficking, rape and possession of firearms in this conservative country. In the latest widely reported case, which was held up by critics as an example of how a death sentence often results in decades of solitary confinement before execution, a housewife failed to get her murder conviction set aside because she had been blocked in filing an appeal for almost six years. In May, a court of appeal apologized to R. Amathevelli, a mother of three, for being forced to wait so long to lodge an appeal against her 2001 death sentence for the murder of a store owner. But the delay, caused by a trial judge failing to supply a written judgment for more than five years, was not a ground for overturning her sentence, the court ruled. Karpal Singh, Amathevelli's defence lawyer, also a prominent opposition lawmaker, added: "Her plight is galvanizing public opinion against death penalty ... such an ultimate punishment has no place in the criminal justice system of Malaysia. All death sentences should be commuted to life imprisonment immediately." Other opposition members of parliament have also taken up the Amathevelli case. The Malaysian Bar Council, an association of 12,000 lawyers, has been vocal in its criticism of the appeal court ruling, arguing that such enforced delays in filing appeals should be a ground for reducing sentences. Council vice-chairman Ragu Kesavan added that increasing numbers of Malaysians are recognizing the death penalty as a barbaric practice and said the government needs to keep in step with public opinion by abolishing it.