Capital punishment in Malaysia

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Malaysian law.

There are currently 27 capital crimes in Malaysia, including murder, drug trafficking, treason, acts of terrorism, waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and, since 2003, rape resulting in death, or the rape of a child. Executions are carried out by hanging. Capital punishment was mandatory for 11 crimes for many years. In October 2018, the government imposed a moratorium on all executions with a view to repeal the death penalty altogether, before it changed its stance and agreed to keep the death penalty but would make it discretionary. On 4 July 2023, mandatory capital punishment was abolished when the Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 (Act 846) came into force, allowing judges to choose between the death penalty or a jail term of 30 to 40 years and not less than 12 strokes of whipping (if not sentenced to death) for capital offences.^[1]

The last execution(s) in Malaysia happened on 24 May 2017, when 48-year-old Yong Kar Mun, who was convicted of discharging a firearm during a robbery, and another unnamed man who was convicted of murder and spent over 20 years on death row, were both hanged at Sungai Buloh Prison on the same day.^[2][3]