119 Nigerians on death row in Malaysia for drug trafficking – Report

A report by Amnesty International has revealed that 119 Nigerians are among a total of 1,281persons currently on death sentence in Malaysia.

The Nigerians, according to the report titled “Fatally Flawed: Why Malaysia must abolish the death sentence”, are on death row for drug trafficking.

According to Malaysian laws, 33 offences are punished with death sentence.

Read also: Missing Auchi Poly staff found dead

“As of 22 February 2019, 1,281 people were under sentence of death in Malaysia, held in 26 detention facilities across the country.

“A startling 44 per cent (568) of all those under sentence of death were foreign nationals, from 43 countries. Nationals from Nigeria made up 21 per cent of this group, with those from Indonesia (16%), Iran (15%), India (10%), Philippines (8%) and Thailand (6%) following suit.

“A significant 73 per cent of all those under sentence of death have been convicted of drug trafficking under Section 39(b) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952 – an extremely high figure for an offence that does not even meet the threshold of the ‘most serious crimes’ under international law and standards and for which the death penalty must not be imposed,” AI said in the report.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now