Capital punishment in Malaysia

Capital punishment in Malaysia is used as a penalty within its legal system for various crimes. 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 2007, rape resulting in death. 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.

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.

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