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  1. #101
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Death row inmates must get Court of Appeal’s permission before filing post-appeal applications

    By Jean Iau
    Straits Times

    Death row inmates will soon have to seek permission from the Court of Appeal before filing further applications to delay their executions after they have exhausted their appeals.

    This comes after the Post-Appeal Applications in Capital Cases Bill, which aims to prevent abuse of court processes, was passed in Parliament on Tuesday.

    After getting the Court of Appeal’s permission, the inmate’s application will be brought before a panel of three or more judges.

    Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Law Rahayu Mahzam told Parliament on Tuesday that to get permission to file the application, the prisoner will be required to state, among other things, the grounds of the challenge and the reasons for not filing it earlier.

    The court, in deciding whether to give its permission or not, will consider factors including whether the application has a reasonable prospect of success and whether it is based on evidence or arguments that could not have been presented before the court earlier.

    In supporting the Bill, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) highlighted that new material in the form of evidence and legal arguments are not prohibited by the Bill.

    “While this Bill may appear to some as putting a spanner in the works for lawyers who wish to file post-appeal applications in capital cases, in my view, it serves to regulate the process better and does not close off defences not heard at trial,” he said.

    Mr Singh asked for clarification on a quote by a Ministry of Law spokesman published in The Straits Times in August that said: “The proposed amendments will clearly set out the process for such applications, and the court will have discretion to allow challenges even if they do not comply with this process.”

    Ms Rahayu said the intention is that where the conditions have not been satisfied, permission should generally not be granted, but the court will exercise considerable care because there is finality. “We don’t want to rule out the possibility. The framework sets out what the court will consider and it’s likely to be extremely rare for the court to go beyond this,” she added.

    Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC) asked what a reasonable prospect of success entails, to which Ms Rahayu responded that the Court of Appeal will consider the merits of the intended application. However, the court is not required to conduct a full determination of the merits when deciding whether to grant its permission.

    Ms Hany Soh (Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC) asked if the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences, which offers free legal representation to those facing capital charges at trial and on appeal, will be extended to cover post-appeal applications.

    Ms Rahayu said such extensions will have to be “carefully studied in consultation with development stakeholders before a decision is taken”.

    In response to Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim (Chua Chu Kang GRC), who asked if more could be done to raise awareness of Singapore’s approach towards capital punishment on the international front, Ms Rahayu said: “Criticisms of Singapore’s approach are often based on misconceptions and inaccurate facts.

    “Singapore actively engages in international fora, such as the United Nations as well as bilaterally to address misconceptions and explain our approach. We will continue to engage and raise awareness.”

    https://www.straitstimes.com/singapo...l-applications
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #102
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    Death penalty for S'pore drug trafficker, 50, reduced to life imprisonment

    By Hannah Martens
    Motherhood

    A convicted drug trafficker in Singapore escaped the death penalty and got life imprisonment instead after the Court of Appeal overturned his sentence in a narrow 3-2 decision.

    Roszaidi bin Osman, 50, was convicted and sentenced previously for handing two packets of heroin to his heavily pregnant wife without telling her they were drugs.

    The woman, Azidah binte Zainal, did not know she was given heroin.

    Roszaidi was charged with trafficking a controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act for his act of passing the substance to his spouse.

    He was convicted of trafficking 32.54g of pure heroin by the High Court in January 2019 and sentenced to death.

    Roszaidi appealed, and his lawyer, Eugene Thuraisingam, sought to have his sentence reduced to life imprisonment on the grounds that he was suffering from an abnormality of mind that substantially impaired his mental responsibility.

    Judges' decision

    On Dec. 1, the majority of the five-judge panel -- Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Judith Prakash and Belinda Ang -- said Roszaidi's decision to traffick drugs was largely influenced by his need to obtain drugs to feed his addiction as he suffered from major depressive disorder and substance use disorder.

    The minority, Justices Andrew Phang and Steven Chong, concluded that Roszaidi's rational judgement was not sufficiently impaired at the time and was thinking in a logical and organised manner.

    Facts of the case

    Roszaidi's exposure to drugs started early in life, according to the judgement.

    He started consuming cannabis at the age of 10 with his friends.

    He would use money given by his mother and grandmother for food to purchase cannabis.

    Subsequently, throughout his adult life, Roszaidi was plagued by drug-related problems.

    From March 1990, when he was 18, to October 2015, Roszaidi had spent up to 18 years -- between the ages of 18 to 43 -- either in prison for drug-related offences or under supervision or undergoing treatment for drug abuse, according to the court's estimation.

    He was subsequently arrested for trafficking two packets of heroin.

    Timeline

    Roszaidi started to suffer from depression in May 2015, following the deaths of his mother and his grandmother.

    He would obtain much of his supply from the drugs he was to deliver.

    He consumed heroin, methamphetamine and dormicum, and his habit escalated.

    In July 2015, he began delivering drugs to feed his drug habits.

    On Oct. 6, 2015, Roszaidi called his friend, Mohammad Azli Mohammad Salleh, to drive him to collect some drugs for a job.

    While waiting for further instructions on what to do with the drugs, Roszaidi called his wife as he needed her to "come down to take something" from him and to bring a plastic bag.

    He did not tell her that he was handing her drugs.

    Azidah, who was pregnant at the time, waited along the road.

    When Roszaidi drove by, he wound down the car window, took the plastic bag from Azidah and placed the drugs inside before handing it back to her through the car window.

    The act of passing his wife the plastic bag with drugs forms the action of the drug trafficking offence of which Roszaidi was convicted.

    Split decision ruling

    At the time, Roszaidi suffered from major depressive disorder (MDD) and substance use disorder (SUD).

    The three out of five judges were of the opinion that the combination of MDD and SUD had "substantially impaired Roszaidi's ability to resist doing what he did".

    They opined:

    "Roszaidi's decision to traffic drugs could not be characterised as a reasoned choice or the consequence of ration judgment but rather was the product of a disordered mind... These mental disorders impaired his ability to control his actions to the extent that his overriding preoccupation at the relevant time was procuring and consuming drugs."

    Roszaidi's act of giving the drugs to Azidah was more likely influenced by his MDD and SUD, both directly and indirectly, it was reasoned.

    However, the dissenting judges argued that Roszaidi "failed to prove that his impaired ability to control his impulse to consume drugs sufficiently influenced his decision to traffic the drugs to his wife".

    They reasoned he became scared when he realised that the drugs were heavier than expected and he offloaded the drugs to his wife for safekeeping.

    The dissenting judges continued: "(Roszaidi) was thinking in a logical and organised manner at the material time. That Azidah was implicated was an unintended consequence. He had erroneously assessed the risks."

    https://mothership.sg/2022/12/drug-t...-imprisonment/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #103
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    Lucky guy. Escaped hanging as well as caning due to his age. It still sucks he will be in prison for life though.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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  4. #104
    Senior Member Frequent Poster Steven AB's Avatar
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    September 19, 2022

    ‘Tell us a better solution, we will listen’: Singapore defends spate of executions

    By Chris Barrett
    The Sydney Morning Herald

    Singapore: Singapore’s minister for law and home affairs has defended a series of hangings that have drawn international outcry this year, rejecting suggestions that the city-state’s reputation has been damaged by its resumption of executions.

    The south-east Asian financial hub is known for its hardline stance on drugs, which it credits for its standing as one of the safest places in the world.

    But after not carrying out a death sentence since 2019, a spate of 10 executions of drug trafficking offenders within four months has put Singapore’s deployment of capital punishment back into the spotlight this year.

    Most notably was the hanging at Changi prison in April of Malaysian man Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who had brought 42 grams of heroin across the border in 2009 but whose lawyers argued should be spared under international convention because of an intellectual impairment.

    The frequency of the executions between March and August alarmed United Nations human rights experts and organisations such as the European Union, which have called on Singapore to abolish death sentences for drugs crimes.

    In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, however, Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam issued a staunch defence of the country’s execution of drug traffickers.

    “Survey after survey shows that more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans support the death penalty. So, domestically, there is overwhelming support,” he said.

    “Internationally, there are some statements issued by UN special rapporteurs. The European Union has an ideological focus on the death penalty. But I would like to ask them if they have a better solution. The chief of the largest police union in [the] Netherlands says that [the] Netherlands is effectively a narco state. What about the people who die of drugs? The gang violence in Sweden is such that it’s become a major election issue. Nobody talks about this. So, when the European Union is able to tell us there is a better solution, we will listen.”

    The reaffirming of Singapore’s stance comes as nearby Malaysia shifts towards removing mandatory death sentences for drug trafficking and 22 other offences and as Thailand liberalises the consumption of cannabis.

    Thailand’s decision to become the first country in Asia to decriminalise marijuana has not come without significant complications, with politicians expressing mounting concern about it being used recreationally rather than for medical reasons, as the government in Bangkok intended.

    It is certainly a path Singapore won’t be following. Instead, it is doubling down on an approach it says is keeping its streets secure, and for which it makes no apologies.

    “We want the message out very clearly that we don’t want to become like western Europe. We don’t want to become like most of the Western cities, we certainly don’t want to become like many cities in South-East Asia,” said Shanmugam, a former foreign minister.

    “Singapore is clean, crime-free effectively, safe. And the only way it can remain that way is that we are tough on traffickers.”

    Anti-death penalty advocates stress there is no evidence that the death penalty acts as a deterrent against drug trafficking and that the punishment ensnares only vulnerable low-level mules, not the kingpins who send them.

    The most high profile of the campaigners, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, even warned this year that Singapore’s use of the death penalty may instead be a “deterrent to those seeking to invest and trade in the future”.

    Shanmugam, however, disputes that Singapore’s appeal as a global financial hub has been dented at all.

    “Singapore’s reputation has actually been enhanced in the two years, not because of the death penalty, but because of the way we handled the pandemic and the calmness in which we went through the whole thing. So, I would say our reputation has never been higher,” he said.

    He also takes aim at questions about deterrence, quoting a survey by Singapore in neighbouring countries in which, he said, about 80 per cent of respondents replied that the threat of capital punishment made them not want to commit serious crimes in the island nation.

    Shanmugam said Singapore had no power to catch drug lords, who capitalised on the flood of illicit substances pouring out of the Golden Triangle region on the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar but were unlikely to dare venturing to the city-state themselves.

    “So what are we supposed to do about that? Now, if I say I don’t catch traffickers and wait for the kingpins, basically my drug policy will be out of the window,” he said.

    “Are we only catching the small guys and not the big guys? It’s a non-question because, you know, the big guys don’t come into Singapore for good reasons. Imagine if they were in Singapore, Singapore would be a very different place. That’s why they don’t come in.”

    On Nagaenthran, whose ultimately unsuccessful last-minute appeal this year garnered international headlines, Shanmugam has pointed to the decision of judges in Singapore, who determined that he did not have an intellectual disability despite an IQ of 69.

    “I would accept that his IQ was lower than the average person. But in law, that is not the main point,” he said.

    “Has anyone raised an eyebrow when the US executed at the same time last year in October, two others with the same IQ? And the US courts dismissed the same arguments. Because the fact that you have a low IQ by itself is not the main point in law. The question is, did you know what you’re doing? And he knew what he was doing. In fact, he was creating excuses and finding new ways of trying to explain away his conduct.”

    Beyond culpability for the crime, lawyers for Nagaenthran also claimed his mental capacity had declined in his 12 years on death row and that he should not be hanged under the UN Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which forbids execution of the intellectually disabled.

    Two psychologists, from Australia and Britain, made submissions to his last-ditch bid to have his sentence commuted to life in prison, describing deterioration in his neurocognitive function that was “clear and significant”.

    But Shanmugam said they were irrelevant because neither had seen the prisoner but had only reviewed the reports of other experts.

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/te...16-p5biqf.html
    "If ever there were a case for a referendum, this is one on which the people should be allowed to express their own views and not irresponsible votes in the House of Commons." — Winston Churchill, on the death penalty

    The self-styled "Death Penalty Information Center" is financed by the oligarchic European Union. — The Daily Signal

  5. #105
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Three Malaysians on death row in Singapore for drug trafficking will have their appeals heard at the republic’s appellate court this Friday.

    By Elill Easwaran
    Free Malaysia Today

    The trio – Datchinamurthy Kataiah, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman and Saminathan Selvaraju – are among the 12 who will have their appeals heard, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network’s Dobby Chew told FMT.

    A fourth Malaysian, Gobi Avedian, who was convicted for drug offences but was not handed the death sentence will also be appealing his case.

    Chew said the convicted Malaysians were appealing their conviction on grounds that their private correspondence with their counsel had on multiple occasions been copied and forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) without their knowledge or consent.

    “Some of this correspondence included privileged communications with lawyers. The AGC is also the state organ that had prosecuted these prisoners.

    “The prisoners had filed a civil suit against the AGC, but it was dismissed by the High Court last year,” he told FMT.

    Datchinamurthy was scheduled to be executed last year. However, he managed to obtain a stay of execution from the Singapore High Court at the 11th hour pending his legal suit against the Singapore government over his death sentence.

    He was charged with smuggling 44.96g of diamorphine into Singapore in 2011 and sentenced to death in 2015.

    Pannir was charged in Singapore for trafficking heroin in 2017 while Saminathan was charged with trafficking diamorphine with two others in 2013.

    According to Chew, Gobi was arrested on Dec 11, 2014 at the Woodlands Checkpoint and subsequently handed a capital charge of importing 40.22g of heroin but a High Court judge acquitted him of the capital charge and reduced it to one of attempted drug importation in 2017.

    Gobi is now facing a 15-year jail sentence and 10 strokes of the cane, with the sentence backdated to the date of his remand.

    The last Malaysian to be executed in Singapore for drugs was Kalwant Singh. He was hanged in July.

    Kalwant was convicted in June 2016 of possessing 60.15g of diamorphine and trafficking 120.9g of the drug in the city-state.

    Prior to that, Malaysian Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam was sent to the gallows in Singapore on April 27 for trafficking heroin.

    https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/ca...-heard-friday/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #106
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Singaporean Inmate To Be Executed On 26 Apr For Alleged Drug Trafficking Offences

    By Ky-Lin Leong
    MSNews

    In 2017, 46-year-old Tangaraju s/o Suppiah was convicted of abetting an attempt at trafficking drugs to Singapore. He was given the death penalty due to the quantity of cannabis involved.

    Six years after the conviction, the Singaporean’s execution date has reportedly been scheduled for next Wednesday (26 Apr).

    A local activist took to Facebook to share Mr Suppiah’s story and appeal for support against his death penalty.

    Mr Suppiah’s first hearing found him guilty of conspiring with his childhood friend, ‘Suresh’, and a man known as ‘Mogan’ to traffic 1017.9g of cannabis to Singapore.

    The judge noted that Mogan was given two phone numbers which he frequently contact prior to his arrest.

    Police investigations later found that Mr Suppiah owned the two numbers.

    Mr Suppiah, however, claimed that he had “nothing to do” with the first number. He also said he lost his mobile phone bearing the second number.

    Nevertheless, the court found him guilty of the charges.

    The judge found that the quantity of drugs involved far exceeded the amount consumed by a typical addict on a daily basis. The court thus concluded that the drugs were for the purpose of trafficking and not personal consumption.

    Mr Suppiah was eventually given the death penalty as the quantity of drugs involved was twice the amount which would’ve ‘triggered’ the death penalty.

    ast December, Mr Suppiah applied for his case to be reviewed on account of a change in the law.

    Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal dismissed his application, citing a failure to provide any “legitimate basis” for the court to review the case.

    On Wednesday (19 Apr), local activist Kokila Annamalai shared on Facebook that Mr Suppiah is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday (26 Apr).

    His family apparently rushed down to visit Mr Suppiah in prison once they were informed of the date.

    Mr Suppiah’s sister, Leela, is “at a complete loss as to what to do”.

    The activist also conveyed Leela’s wishes for the public to help her family protest against her brother’s execution.

    https://mustsharenews.com/inmate-executed/

    As always here is a link to his full case here https://www.elitigation.sg/gdviewer/gd/2018_SGHC_279/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  7. #107
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Singapore Hangs Father For Possession Of 2 Pounds Of Marijuana

    A man named Tangaraju Suppiah was executed in Singapore on Wednesday for being convicted of conspiracy to traffic over 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cannabis.

    Despite the United Nations Human Rights Office’s plea for clemency, the 46-year-old man was hanged, marking the city-state’s first execution in six months and the 12th since last year.

    Singapore has strict anti-drug laws, and the government believes that the death penalty is an effective deterrent against drug trafficking. However, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concerns over due process and fair trial guarantees, and believes that the death penalty does not deter crime.

    “The death penalty is still being used in a small number of countries, largely because of the myth that it deters crime,” the OHCHR wrote in a statement.

    Tangaraju’s family has asked for a retrial, but Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry stated that his guilt had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

    https://breaking911.com/breaking-sin...-of-marijuana/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #108
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Execution scheduled for May 17th.

    by Lydia Lam


    The Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by a cannabis trafficker on death row to have his case reviewed.

    In a judgment released on Tuesday (May 16), Justice Tay Yong Kwang said the application was "clearly an impermissible attempt at reopening and rearguing the appeal" that Muhammad Faizal Mohd Shariff, 36, had already attempted.

    Justice Tay said there was no new evidence that would satisfy the requirements of a review application.

    Faizal was convicted in January 2019 by trial judge Chan Seng Onn of a charge of possessing cannabis for the purpose of trafficking.

    He was arrested in February 2016 and found to have 3.5kg of vegetable matter, which contained 1.6kg of cannabis, for the purpose of trafficking.

    It was not disputed that he collected four blocks of cannabis, that he referred to as "storybooks", and brought them to an apartment where he cut and repacked one of the blocks into smaller portions.

    He claimed he had possessed the cannabis to consume, and that only a small portion was meant for sale. However, he also testified that he had never smoked cannabis before and that it was for "future use" as he wanted to do it "bit by bit".

    The trial judge found that Faizal had possession and knowledge of all six blocks of cannabis involved. He had admitted in a statement that the cannabis was meant for sale, and dealt with the drugs in a manner consistent with someone intending to traffic in it, weighing one of the blocks and breaking it down into smaller portions before wrapping the portions.

    Faizal was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty, and appealed against the High Court's decision.

    In August 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed Faizal's appeals.

    On May 10 this year, the Singapore Prison Service informed Faizal's family that the death sentence would be carried out on Faizal on May 17.

    Faizal filed a new application on May 11, seeking a review of his case, hoping for a reduction to life imprisonment or a reduced charge to a non-capital offence.

    His counsel argued that there has been a change in the law and that additional evidence has come to light.

    The prosecution filed submissions in response on May 15, saying Faizal had failed to raise sufficient material.

    Justice Tay dismissed the application without setting it down for hearing.

    https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sing...missed-3491776
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #109
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    Singapore executes second prisoner in 3 weeks

    Singapore authorities say the man was accorded full due process under the law.

    MalaysiaNow

    Singapore on Wednesday hanged a man for trafficking drugs, authorities said, in the city-state's second execution in three weeks.

    The man was convicted in 2019 of trafficking around 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) of cannabis, Kokila Annamalai of local rights group Transformative Justice Collective told AFP.

    Singapore has some of the world's toughest anti-narcotics laws: trafficking more than 500g of cannabis can result in the death penalty.

    "A 36-year-old Singaporean man had his capital sentence carried out today at Changi Prison Complex," a spokesman for the city-state's prison service told AFP.

    Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said in a separate statement that it would not release the name of the man to respect his family's wish for privacy.

    "The person was accorded full due process under the law, and had access to legal counsel throughout the process," CNB added.

    A last-ditch appeal to review the case and stay his execution was dismissed on Tuesday, Annamalai said.

    Despite growing international calls to abolish the death penalty, Singapore insists that it is an effective deterrent against trafficking.

    The Wednesday execution was the second in Singapore this year after Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was hanged on April 26 for conspiracy to smuggle a kilo of cannabis.

    Thirteen death row inmates have been hanged since Singapore resumed executions in March 2022 after a hiatus of more than two years.

    Tangaraju Suppiah's execution sparked an international outcry, with rights groups pointing to "many flaws" in the case, but the Singapore government said his guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

    Activists said they will continue to push for Singapore to abolish capital punishment as it has no proven deterrent effect on crime.

    "The call to the Singapore government (to scrap the death penalty) has been loud and clear globally, and we will repeat the call: Singapore has to halt the executions," Amnesty International's executive director for Malaysia Katrina Jorene Maliamauv told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

    "They have to commute all existing death sentences."

    Among those hanged last year was Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked international condemnation because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

    https://www.malaysianow.com/out-ther...ner-in-3-weeks

  10. #110
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    Singapore hangs a man for drug trafficking. It will hang a woman on Friday — the first in 19 years

    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singapore executed a man Wednesday for drug trafficking and is set to hang a woman Friday — the first in 19 years — prompting renewed calls for a halt to capital punishment.

    Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, was hanged at Singapore’s Changi Prison and has been buried, said activist Kirsten Han of Transformative Justice Collective, which advocates for abolishing the death penalty in Singapore. A citizen of the city-state, he was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 50 grams (1.75 ounces) of heroin, Han said.

    Saridewi Djamani, a 45-year-old Singaporean woman, is due to be hanged Friday after she was convicted and sentenced in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams (1.05 ounces) of heroin, the group and other human rights organizations said. Han said the last woman known to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.

    “Singaporean authorities must immediately stop these blatant violations of the right to life in their obsessive enforcement of misguided drug policies,” Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary-general of the International Federation of Human Rights, said in a statement.

    If Djamani’s is executed as planned, Singapore will have executed 15 people for drug offences since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one execution every month, Transformative Justice Collective, Amnesty International and seven other groups said in a joint statement.

    Anyone — citizens and foreigners alike — convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.64 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.53 ounces) of heroin faces the mandatory death penalty.

    Human rights groups, British business mogul Richard Branson and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug-related offenses as increasing evidence shows the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent. But Singapore authorities insist that all prisoners get due process of law and that capital punishment remains key to helping halt both drug demand and supply.

    The joint statement by Transformative Justice Collective and other groups noted that Law Minister K. Shanmugam reportedly acknowledged in a 2022 interview that Singapore’s harsh policy on drugs has not led to the arrest of the so-called drug kingpins.

    “Instead of disrupting drug cartels … the government of Singapore deliberately retains capital drug laws that, in practice, operate to punish low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalised groups with intersecting vulnerabilities,” the statement said.

    The groups said Singapore is out of step with the global trend of more countries moving away from capital punishment. Neighboring Thailand has legalized cannabis while Malaysia ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes this year. The groups urged Singapore to halt all executions and instead pursue effective measures to humanely address drug trafficking in the country.

    https://apnews.com/article/singapore...8b330662aafa62
    Last edited by Steven; 07-26-2023 at 01:38 PM.

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