A Malaysian cabinet minister has advocated revising the country's mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking, a punishment that threatens a Sydney grandmother.
Maria Pinto Exposto is awaiting trial with a possible death sentence after tests confirmed a substance found in her bag at Kuala Lumpur airport on December 7 last year was 1.1kg of crystal methamphetamine.
Malaysia has the penalty of death by hanging for anyone guilty of carrying 50g or more of methamphetamine.
But a minister in Malaysia's prime minister's department, Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, says it's time the policy was revised.
He says the number of drug trafficking offences is rising, suggesting the threat of the death penalty is not a deterrent.
"When policies are not working, I believe that they should be changed," he told the Asian Regional Congress on the Death Penalty on Thursday.
Malaysia's government reconsidered the law in 2009 and there hasn't been an execution since 2010.
Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru says it's time the government made its position clear.
"It's precious little we can hold on to," he said of the minister's comments.
Australian lawyer Julian McMahon, who represented Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, was more optimistic about Malaysia's prospects for abolition.
"I think we're at that point in time and I think what's really needed now is leadership," he said.
In the past decade, five countries in Southeast Asia abolished the death penalty.
About half of the almost 1000 people on death row in Malaysia are believed to be there for drug crime.
Exposto, 52, says she is innocent of drug trafficking and was duped into carrying a bag she believed contained only clothes.
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