A single mother of 9 children has been sentenced to death for being in possession of illicit drugs.
The mother identified as Hairun Jalmani was also charged with the distribution of the substances.
She was sentenced to death at the Tawa High Court in Sabah after she was caught with 11.9g of meth in 2018.
A video of the accused crying and begging for forgiveness while being led away by officers emerged on social media, stirring varying reactions form people.
After the video emerged, Amnesty International Malaysia condemned the treatment of women in South-East Asia.
They demanded that the death sentenced be abolished stating the the accused had immense life troubles on her shoulder as she was a single mother of 9 children in a poor country.
According to Amnesty International, “Hairun’s life chances were stacked against her. She was a single mother in Malaysia’s poorest State trying to support her 9 children.
“Her case is an example of how Malaysia’s death penalty punishes the poor with particular discrimination agaisnts women.
“Why is the right to life so easily denied by the government ? Who is kept safe when a single mother of 9 is sentenced to death and removed from her children ?
What Justice is served when the structural inequalities and oppressions that created the conditions for her charge remain ?”
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