Malaysia’s Death Formula: Exploited by Drug Syndicates, Punished by the State

Explore our interactive Executive Summary here.

In 2016, Herlina Purnama Sari, a single mother from Surabaya, Indonesia, was sentenced to death by the Federal Court of Malaysia for drug trafficking following her arrest in 2012. However, unknown to Malaysia’s criminal justice system, two individuals involved in deceiving her and arranging her trip to Malaysia had already been convicted in Surabaya for conspiracy in drug trafficking and money laundering in 2014.

The re-sentencing of death row prisoners in Malaysia, a process which concluded in 2024, has uncovered the scale and number of drug couriers previously sentenced to death in the country. A detailed review of these cases shows that sophisticated organised crime groups recruit and deceive vulnerable individuals to serve as drug couriers, often via tactics linked to, or drawn directly from, human trafficking. Documented cases indicate that such victims are provided with fraudulently obtained travel documents before being sent abroad, occasionally carrying drugs in a third country, before being arrested and prosecuted for drug trafficking in Malaysia. Many of these stories and testimonies were dismissed during the trial due to a lack of reliable evidence. Still, brief investigations in the victims’ home countries confirmed their claims of deception and manipulation. 

This calls for placing the circumstances of those convicted for drug trafficking within the broader context of global human trafficking trends. According to the Trafficking in Persons Report 2024 by UNODC, 74% of human traffickers operate within organised crime groups. Worldwide, data indicate that victims from at least 162 different nationalities have been trafficked to 128 destination countries. Methods of exploitation for different purposes vary significantly among regions, with 22% of victims identified in Western and Southern Europe trafficked for forced criminalities, including drug trafficking. The connection between human and drug trafficking was also recognised as a form of forced criminality in the 2024 United States of America Trafficking in Persons Report. 

HAYAT’s new report critically examines the dynamics of drug trafficking legislation in Malaysia and its perilous intersection with human trafficking, focusing on how the Malaysian criminal justice system’s application of legal presumptions and the doctrine of ‘wilful blindness’ has consistently disadvantaged victims of trafficking who are exploited as drug couriers. Developed through primary research in Malaysia, with supplementary cross-referencing in Indonesia and the Philippines, the report serves as a foundational text for further policy examination into the challenges and opportunities for reform within the region.

Explore our interactive Executive Summary here.