An interesting turn of events in Malaysia

Imagine a Texan traveling abroad.

Now imagine a Texan was arrested, unfairly charged with a capital crime, convicted and sentenced to death.

Would it make Texas -- the leading execution state in the U.S. -- rethink its position on the issue of the death penalty? I don't know. But the following story, which we are posting in its entirety, hopefully will give us pause and at least allow us to view this issue in a different light:

Beijing Sentence Shakes Malaysia's Own Policy


Malaysia's unshakable stand on the death penalty appears to be wavering as
a country unites in sympathy and outrage over the plight of a young Malay
woman sentenced to death in China for allegedly acting as a drug courier.

Umi Azlim Mohamad Lazim, 24, a university science graduate from a poor
Malay family of rice farmers, admitted to having 2.9 kilograms in her
luggage when she was arrested at Shantou airport last January.

She told a court in southeast China during her trial in May 2007, that she
was travelling for a highly-paid job she secured over the internet. But
she was unaware what was in the bag she was carrying for a Nigerian
friend. The judge rejected her explanation and sentenced her to death, the
usual sentence for such an offence.

"She thought she was carrying important corporate documents," her mother,
Umi Ibrahim, told IPS. "We cry everyday ... what can we do? We want her to
live not die."

Most Malaysians appear to share the mother's anguish.

The case is fast-developing into an emotive national issue. Politicians
have set aside their differences to halt Lazim's execution. The ruling
United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and its rival the Islamic
fundamentalist Pan Malaysian Islamic Party are even vying in their
efforts.

Both are collecting money for the family, working to arrange family visits
and promising they will save Lazim from execution.

The government is at a distinct disadvantage in the race to save Lazim.
Malaysia's punishment for drug-related crimes is as harsh, if not harsher,
than most other countries. The government supports the death penalty.

"Malaysia has suddenly woken up to the fact that ordinary Malaysians are
now caught in the same death-penalty trap that we put others in,"
Nagarajan Surendran, a human rights lawyer and executive co-director of
Malaysians Against the Death Penalty, a NGO campaigning against capital
punishment, told IPS. Trafficking in more than 200 grams of dangerous
drugs carries a death sentence.

"Today there are about 300 people on death row here, mostly for drug
offences," Surendran said. Many of the 359 people executed from 1980 to
2001 had been sentenced for drug offences.

Much national outrage is today focused on how the Chinese might eventually
end Lazim's life, although her sentence has been suspended for 2 years on
humanitarian grounds. "People are shot in their heads with rifles. It is a
horrific way for a young girl to die," said Surendran, expressing a
widely-expressed view.

The case has also suddenly brought to public attention a number of others.
There are some 30 young Malaysian women either sentenced or awaiting trial
for drug-related offences in more than a dozen countries besides China,
including Japan, Brazil and Peru. Several could be sentenced to death.

Many are university graduates lured by offers of high salaries and
opportunities to travel. Behind the tempting offers are shady front
companies run by international drug cartels.

"The syndicates are willing to throw money at the unsuspecting girls
before they make their moves," federal narcotics department director Bakri
Zinin told local newspapers in November.

The problem of young Malaysians caught ferrying drugs is already posing a
major problem for the foreign ministry. Diplomats are kept busy finding
defence lawyers, monitoring trails and making regular health and welfare
checks on the young women.

"Their fate is a major embarrassment to the government," said Ramu
Annamalai Kandasamy, a human rights lawyer representing many such clients
and death-row inmates, told IPS. "The government has to come up with a
firm policy on how to help the victims on death-row in far off countries."

Surendran's proposal is for Malaysia to introduce an immediate moratorium
on executions. This would lift the threat of execution of foreigners on
Malaysian soil. Other countries would be likely to respond in kind.

"Malaysia would get a more sympathetic hearing if it imposed a moratorium.
One good turn deserves another," he argues.

"People would understand," he adds, suggesting that the public would agree
that a change in policy over the death penalty was the most diplomatically
effective way of saving the lives of condemned Malaysians on foreign
death-rows.

A moratorium could also help secure the reduction in other harsh sentences
imposed on Malaysians by foreign courts, diplomatic sources say. Peru was
ready to reduce sentences of up to 20 years imposed on Malaysians in
return for the sparing 5 of its nationals on death-row in Malaysia, they
add.

Many opposition politicians would support a moratorium, or even total
abolition, if it could save the lives of Malaysians like Lazim.

"These girls made a mistake in their youth. They deserve to live, not to
be killed so cruelly. Imagine the pain their loved ones are going
through," said opposition lawmaker Teresa Kok.

"If Malaysia abolishes the death sentence it can stand on a higher moral
ground and ask foreign countries to spare the hangman's noose.

"It is time Malaysia complied with international standards," she added,
citing the U.N. General Assembly resolution last December calling for a
moratorium on executions. The resolution urged all states that still
maintain the death penalty "to establish a moratorium on executions with a
view to abolishing the death penalty".

(source: IPS)