One hundred and nineteen Nigerians have been identified by Amnesty International, among the total of 1,281 persons sentenced to death in Malaysia.

AI gave the figure in its report titled, “Fatally flawed: Why Malaysia must abolish the death penalty.”

It said the 1,281 death row inmates were being kept in 26 detention facilities across Malaysia.

In Malaysia, 33 offences are punished with death sentence.

The 119 Nigerians were convicted of hard drug-related offences, AI said.

“As of 22 February 2019, 1,281 people were under sentence of death in Malaysia, held in 26 detention facilities across the country.

“A startling 44 per cent (568) of all those under sentence of death were foreign nationals, from 43 countries. Nationals from Nigeria made up 21 per cent of this group, with those from Indonesia (16%), Iran (15%), India (10%), Philippines (8%) and Thailand (6%) following suit.

AI said in the report, “A significant 73 per cent of all those under sentence of death have been convicted of drug trafficking under Section 39(b) of the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1952 – an extremely high figure for an offence that does not even meet the threshold of the ‘most serious crimes’ under international law and standards and for which the death penalty must not be imposed.”