Shahrul Izani is facing execution after being found in possession of over 600 grams of cannabis when he was 19 years old. It was his first criminal offense. He has exhausted all his appeals, and could be executed at any time.
Shahrul Izani Bin Suparaman was arrested on 25 September 2003 at around 10pm, while driving his neighbour’s motorbike. The police officers found on the motorbike two plastic bags containing suspected dried cannabis leaves and charged him with drug trafficking.
Further examination commissioned by the police on 18 December 2003 confirmed that the substance Sharul Izani was found in possession of amounted to 622 grams of cannabis. He was formally charged under the Dangerous Drugs Act before the High Court a year later, on 9 December 2004.
After spending more than six years in detention awaiting trial, Shahrul Izani was convicted of drug trafficking and mandatorily sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court on 28 December 2009. The Court of Appeal heard and dismissed his appeal on the same day on 12 October 2011. Similarly, on 26 June 2012 the Federal Court heard and dismissed his appeal.
In 2014, Shahrul Izani appealed for clemency before the Pardon Board of Selangor state. Among other points, in pleading for pardon Shahrul Izani highlighted that he had been convicted of his first offence when he was just 19 years old; and that his father dies while Shahrul was in prison and that his mother needed his support. He also stated that he has fully repented for his crime and would not reoffend again if given the chance. As of 1 October 2015, the appeal was pending.
While drug-related offences do not meet the threshold of the “most serious crimes” for which the death penalty can be imposed under international law, Malaysia’s Dangerous Drugs Act provides for the mandatory death penalty for anyone found guilty of drug trafficking or assisting others to traffic illegal substances. Mandatory death sentences, even for the most serious crimes, are contrary to international law. The UN Human Rights Committee has said that “the automatic and mandatory imposition of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life, in violation of Article 6, paragraph 1, of the [International] Covenant [on Civil and Political Rights], in circumstances where the death penalty is imposed without any possibility of taking into account the defendant’s personal circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offence”.
Furthermore, under the Act, anyone found in possession of certain amounts or more of specified substances, or who is found to have custody over buildings or vehicles in which these substances are found, is automatically presumed to be trafficking drugs. In these circumstances, the burden of proof shifts on the defendant, who has to demonstrate that there is a reasonable doubt in relation to his or her presumed guilt.
The secretive nature of the use of the death penalty in Malaysia has made it impossible to obtain an accurate picture of its use and application. Amnesty International has recorded that approximately half of the death sentences known to have been imposed by Malaysian courts in recent years were for drug-related offences (16 out of 38 in 2014 and 47 out of 76 in 2013). While it has been highly challenging to obtain and verify information relating to executions, Amnesty International recorded that one person convicted of drug trafficking was executed as recently as 2013.
In July 2012 the Malaysian government announced plans to review its mandatory laws relating to drug offences. Reports in October of the same year suggested that it planned to replace the death penalty with prison terms as punishment for such offences. The government has yet to introduce amendments to national legislation to this aim. The Attorney-General’s Chambers informed Amnesty International that a study of death penalty laws and practices was ongoing at the end of 2014. During the UN Human Rights Council UPR in March 2014 Malaysia rejected recommendations to take steps towards abolition, as recommended during the UPR in October 2013.