Capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
is a legal penalty in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. Executions are carried out by
long drop hanging, and usually take place at dawn. 33 offences— including murder, drug trafficking, terrorism, use of firearms and kidnapping — warrant the death penalty under Singapore law.
In 2012, Singapore amended its laws to exempt some offences from the mandatory death sentence. In a survey done in 2005 by ''
The Straits Times
''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...
'', 95% of Singaporeans believe that their country should retain the death penalty.
[Ho, Peng Kee, ''Singapore Parliamentary Reports'', 11th Parliament, Session 1, Volume 83, 23 October 2007.] The support steadily fell throughout the years due to the increasing liberal opinions of society. Despite the decline, a large majority of the public remains supportive of the use of the death penalty, with more than 80% of Singaporeans believing that their country should retain the death penalty in 2021.
The most recent execution to be conducted in Singapore was on 7 October 2022, when a 55-year-old Singaporean convicted of a drug trafficking charge was executed at dawn. So far, eleven executions have taken place in Singapore in 2022.
Legislation
Procedures
Section 316 of the
Criminal Procedure Code
Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail ...
states that the death penalty in Singapore is to be conducted by hanging.
Hangings always take place at dawn and are by the
long drop method. The Singapore government has affirmed its choice of execution in favour of
other methods.
It is a normal practice for everyone present in the courtroom to stand and remain silent before the death sentence is passed. The judge will then proceed to announce the death sentence on the accused, who has been found guilty and convicted of the capital offence. The condemned will be given notice at least four days before execution. In the case of foreigners sentenced to death, their families and diplomatic missions or embassies will be given one to two weeks' notice.
Exemptions
Underaged and pregnant offenders
Persons under the age of 18 at the time of their offence and pregnant women cannot be sentenced to death.
Previously, offenders under 18 at the time of their offences would be indefinitely detained at
the president's pleasure
At His Majesty's pleasure (sometimes abbreviated to King's pleasure or, when the reigning monarch is female, at Her Majesty's pleasure or Queen's pleasure) is a legal term of art referring to the indeterminate or undetermined length of service of ...
(TPP), with the normal period of detention having been between 10 and 20 years. These inmates would be released after receiving clemency from the
President of Singapore
The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the reserves and the integrity of the public service. The presidency is largely ceremonial, with the Cabinet led by the prime ...
, once they were assessed to be suitable for release.
In 2010, the law was amended to allow judges to mete out
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
to offenders convicted of capital offences, but aged below 18 at the time of their crimes. They would be required to serve a minimum of 20 years before they can be reviewed for possible release. As for women who were pregnant at the time of their sentencing, they would automatically be sentenced to life imprisonment upon their conviction of any capital offences, though there have been no such cases as of yet.
Offenders of unsound mind
Persons proven to be of
unsound mind when they commit capital crimes, once found guilty, are not be given the death penalty. Previously, they were sentenced to another form of indefinite detention under
TPP, being detained at medical facilities, prisons or at some other safe places in custody, and subject to psychiatric review of their mental conditions until suitable for release.
Pre-1970 jury trials
Before they were abolished in 1970,
jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or panel of judges makes all decisions.
Jury trials are used in a signific ...
s were conducted to hear capital cases in Singapore since the British colonial era. Based on the verdict of a jury, if a person was found guilty, the judge would convict and impose a penalty to the defendant in accordance to the charge he or she was found guilty of. One notable case in which a person was sentenced to death in a jury trial was the trial of
Sunny Ang Soo Suan
Sunny Ang Soo Suan (; – 6 February 1967), alias Anthony Ang, was a Singaporean racing driver and part-time law student who gained notoriety for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Jenny Cheok Cheng Kid near Sisters' Islands. Ang was charge ...
, who allegedly murdered his girlfriend
Jenny Cheok Cheng Kid
Sunny Ang Soo Suan (; – 6 February 1967), alias Anthony Ang, was a Singaporean racing driver and part-time law student who gained notoriety for the alleged murder of his girlfriend Jenny Cheok Cheng Kid near Sisters' Islands. Ang was charge ...
during a scuba diving trip in 1963. Despite the circumstantial evidence and the absence of the victim's body, the seven-men jury unanimously found Ang guilty of murder and sentenced him to death. Ang was eventually hanged on 6 February 1967 after he lost all his appeals to both the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
and the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...
, and the failure of his clemency plea to
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Yusof Ishak.
The first person to be tried before two judges in the High Court and sentenced to death for a capital case was armed robber Teo Cheng Leong, who was found guilty and sentenced in February 1970 for unlawfully discharging a firearm twice when he fired two missed shots at a police officer. Another notable case was the kidnapping and murder of Ong Beang Leck, the son of a rich tycoon. Five men were involved in the abduction and they had murdered Ong after luring him into a rented car on 24 May 1968. Three of the kidnappers were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in June 1970. In the first case of a woman being sentenced to death in Singapore, dance hostess
Mimi Wong Weng Siu was convicted of murdering
Ayako Watanabe out of jealousy in 1970 and received the death sentence in the same trial as her ex-husband
Sim Woh Kum
Sim Woh Kum ( ; – 27 July 1973), also spelt Sim Wor Kum, was a Singaporean who was best known to be the accomplice of Mimi Wong, a bar hostess who was the first woman to be sentenced to death for murder in Singapore since its independence. ...
, who assisted her in killing the
Japanese victim, who was the wife of Wong's Japanese boyfriend. The couple were executed on 27 July 1973.
Appeals
Since the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code in 1992, all capital cases have been heard by a single judge in the
High Court instead of two judges. After conviction and sentencing, the offender has the option of making an appeal to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
. If the appeal fails, the final recourse rests with the
President of Singapore
The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the reserves and the integrity of the public service. The presidency is largely ceremonial, with the Cabinet led by the prime ...
, who has the power to grant clemency on the advice of the
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filin ...
. In exceptional cases since 2012, the Court of Appeal would be asked to review its previous decisions in concluded criminal appeals where it was necessary to correct a miscarriage of justice, most of which involved drug cases attracting the death penalty. The exact number of successful appeals is unknown. In November 1995, one Poh Kay Keong had his conviction overturned after the court found that his statement to a
Central Narcotics Bureau
The Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Home Affairs and the primary drug enforcement agency in Singapore. CNB is responsible for coordinating all matters pertaining to drug eradication. Its current direct ...
officer had been made under duress.
Another was the
case of Nadasan Chandra Secharan, who was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court in June 1996, but later acquitted of murder by the Court of Appeal in January 1997 after they found the evidence against him was insufficient to show that he had murdered his lover Ramapiram Kannickaisparry. Another case was that of Ismil bin Kadar, who was initially sentenced to death for a 2005 robbery-murder case in
Boon Lay, but eventually acquitted of the crime as the Court of Appeal found that based on the evidence, Ismil was not involved in the case and that it was solely his younger brother Muhammad bin Kadar who was responsible for the robbery and murder; Muhammad was subsequently executed in April 2015.
Successful clemency applications are thought to be even rarer. Since 1965, the presidential clemency has been granted seven times to death row inmates, whose sentences were commuted to life imprisonment (not counting the clemency pleas of the underaged offenders serving TPP). The last presidential clemency was granted by President Halimah Yacob in December 2018 to the teenager involved in the killing of
Anthony Ler
Anthony Ler Wee Teang ( – 13 December 2002) was a Singaporean convicted murderer who hired a youth to murder his wife, 30-year-old real-estate agent Annie Leong Wai Mun, who was in the midst of a divorce with him. Ler's motive was to become ...
’s wife. The last clemency given prior to that was in April 1998, when President
Ong Teng Cheong
Ong Teng Cheong ( zh, c=王鼎昌, p=Wáng Dǐngchāng; 22 January 1936 – 8 February 2002) was a Singaporean politician who served as the fifth president of Singapore between 1993 and 1999. He was also the first elected president in Singapor ...
pardoned a 19-year-old death row inmate and convicted murderer
Mathavakannan Kalimuthu
Mathavakannan Kalimuthu (Tamil language: மாதவக்கண்ணன் காளிமுத்து; born 10 May 1978) is an Indian Singaporean who, together with his two friends, murdered a gangster named Saravanan Michael Ramalingam ...
, commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Previously, other than the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
, offenders were allowed to file criminal or civil appeals to the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...
in London, where the judges could hear their appeals once they exhausted all avenues of appeal in Singapore. This avenue of appeal was fully abolished for all criminal and civil matters in April 1994. One case in which an appeal to the Privy Council was successful was the case of murderer
Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin
On 22 April 1972, Poon Sai Im, a 58-year-old provisions shop owner who lived in Pulau Ubin, Singapore, was ambushed by two men, who had gone from the mainland to the island to rob her of money, cigarettes and gold items. When one of Poon's attacke ...
. 19-year-old Yasin robbed, raped and murdered a 58-year-old woman at
Pulau Ubin
Pulau Ubin, also simply known as Ubin, is an island situated in the north east of Singapore, to the west of Pulau Tekong. The granite quarry used to be supported by a few thousand settlers on Pulau Ubin in the 1960s, but only about 38 villagers ...
in April 1972. He was sentenced to death for murder in 1974 and lost his appeal before the Privy Council accepted his appeal and sentenced him to two years' imprisonment for causing death while committing a rash/negligent act.
Changes to the law
In July 2012, the government made a review of the mandatory death penalty applied to certain drug trafficking or murder offences. In the midst of this review, a
moratorium was imposed on all the 35 pending executions in Singapore at that time (7 for murder and 28 for drug trafficking). During that period of the review of the mandatory death penalty, one convicted murderer,
Pathip Selvan s/o Sugumaran, who made headlines for the violent murder of his girlfriend in 2008, won his appeal in October 2012 and was re-sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for
culpable homicide
Culpable homicide is a categorisation of certain offences in various jurisdictions within the Commonwealth of Nations which involves the illegal killing of a person either with or without an intention to kill depending upon how a particular j ...
. Wang Zhijian, a Chinese national who committed the 2008
Yishun triple murders
The Yishun triple murders case was a series of three violent murders of three women in a rented flat in Yishun, Singapore in 2008. The suspect, Wang Zhijian, was the boyfriend of one of the two adult women living in the flat, and Wang, togeth ...
, was sentenced to death for a conviction of murder under Section 300(a) of the Penal Code in November 2012, and another unnamed death row convict died of natural causes while in prison.
In November 2012, capital punishment laws in Singapore were revised such that the mandatory death penalty for those convicted of drug trafficking or murder was lifted under certain specific conditions. Judges were empowered with the discretion to sentence such offenders to life imprisonment with the possibility of
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
after 20 years. These changes were approved by
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and set to take effect in January of the following year.
In January 2013, the law was again amended to make the death penalty no longer mandatory for certain capital offences. Judges in Singapore were given a discretion to impose a sentence of
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
with mandatory
caning
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts") with a single Stick-fighting, cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks (see spanking) or ha ...
for offenders who commit murder but had no intention to kill, which come under Sections 300(b), 300(c) and 300(d) of the
Penal Code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
. The death penalty remains mandatory only for murders committed with the intent to kill, which come under section 300(a) of the Penal Code. Provided that drug traffickers only act as couriers, suffer from impaired mental responsibility (e.g.
depression), or substantively assist the authorities in tackling drug trafficking activities, among other conditions, judges also had discretion not to issue the death sentence. Drug traffickers who were not condemned to death but to life-long incarceration with caning would receive at least 15 strokes of the cane, unless suffering from mental incapacity. Despite this discretion, a sentence of life imprisonment is the mandatory minimum penalty for capital murder or drug trafficking offences.
The first person to be sentenced to life imprisonment, instead of receiving the death penalty, under the amended death penalty laws was drug trafficker Abdul Haleem bin Abdul Karim on 10 April 2013, having been a courier in traffic drugs and had assisted the authorities in disrupting the drug trafficking activities. In addition to his life sentence, Abdul Haleem, who pleaded guilty to two charges of drug trafficking, was also given the maximum sentence of 24 strokes of the cane. Abdul Haleem's accomplice, Muhammad Ridzuan bin Md Ali, on the other hand, was sentenced to death for drug trafficking and later hanged on 19 May 2017.
After the changes to the law, the first executions to take place were those of drug traffickers Tang Hai Liang and Foong Chee Peng on 18 July 2014, after their sentences were finalized and their refusal to further appeal against their sentences.
Re-sentencing of death row inmates
The amendments of the law also offered a chance for all current death row inmates to have their cases to be reviewed for re-sentencing. Some death row inmates declined to be re-sentenced, including Tang Hai Liang and Foong Chee Peng.
The below cases are known cases where death row inmates applied for re-sentencing.
= Murder
=
* 17 April 2015:
Muhammad bin Kadar was hanged after spending five years and nine months on death row for the robbery and murder of an elderly housewife in 2005. He was sentenced to death by the
High Court in 2008 and had his appeal dismissed by the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in 2011. He applied for re-sentencing when changes to the law took effect in 2013, but the Court of Appeal denied his application in 2014.
* 16 July 2013:
Fabian Adiu Edwin, a Malaysian who partnered with his childhood friend Ellary Puling to commit a series of six robberies in 2008, resulting in the death of one of the victims. While Ellary was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment and 24 strokes of caning for robbery with hurt, Fabian was meanwhile convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2011. The
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
dismissed his appeal against his sentence in 2012. After amendments to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 24
strokes of the cane.
* 28 August 2013:
Bijukumar Remadevi Nair Gopinathan, an Indian national who robbed and murdered a Filipino prostitute in 2010, was initially sentenced to death in 2012. He appealed to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in 2012 but was still found guilty of murder. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2013 to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 18
strokes of the cane.
* 12 November 2013:
Kamrul Hasan Abdul Quddus Kamrul may refer to:
* Kamrul Ahsan, Bangladeshi diplomat
* Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan (1952–2018), Bangladeshi Major in the Bangladesh Army
* Kamrul Hasan or Quamrul Hassan (1921–1988), Bengali artist
*Kazi Kamrul Hassan (born 1961), retired Banglad ...
, a Bangladeshi who murdered his Indonesian girlfriend in 2007. He was initially found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 2010, and had his appeal to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
dismissed in 2012. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 10
strokes of the cane. He tried filing an appeal for a lighter sentence but was turned down by the Court of Appeal in 2014.
* 13 November 2013:
Wang Wenfeng
Wang Wenfeng (; born June 20, 1993) is a Chinese Muay Thai kickboxer. He is the 2018 KLF 61.5 kg tournament winner.
He was ranked as a top ten bantamweight (-65 kg) kickboxer in the world by Combat Press between June 2018 and January 2021.
K ...
, a Chinese national who robbed and murdered a taxi driver in 2009, was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 2011. He had also lost his appeal to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in 2012. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 24
strokes of the cane. The prosecution filed an appeal but withdrew it in 2015 in light of the outcome of the prosecution's appeal against
Kho Jabing
Kho Jabing (4 January 1984 – 20 May 2016), later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ru ...
's life sentence.
* 20 May 2016:
Kho Jabing
Kho Jabing (4 January 1984 – 20 May 2016), later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ru ...
, a Malaysian hanged for the 2008 robbery and murder of a construction worker. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was initially re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 24
strokes of the cane on 14 August 2013. However, after the prosecution appealed, he was sentenced to death again in a landmark ruling by a majority decision of 3–2 in the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
and eventually hanged in the afternoon of the same day his final appeal was dismissed.
= Drug trafficking
=
* 17 November 2013:
Yong Vui Kong
Yong Vui Kong () (born 23 January 1988) is a Malaysian who was sentenced to death in Singapore for trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin in 2007. His sentence was reduced to life imprisonment and caning as a result of Singapore's amendmen ...
, a Malaysian found guilty of drug trafficking in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2008. He lost multiple appeals against his sentence to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
and
President of Singapore
The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the reserves and the integrity of the public service. The presidency is largely ceremonial, with the Cabinet led by the prime ...
. However, when changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 15
strokes of the cane. Yong was the first drug convict on death row to be spared the gallows since the 2013 law reforms.
* 6 January 2014:
Subashkaran Pragasam, a Singaporean found guilty of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2012. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 15
strokes of the cane.
* 3 March 2014:
Dinesh Pillai Reja Retnam
Dinesh (Devanagari: ') is a common Hindu male given name. The Sanskrit word ' is a compound of ' 'day' and ' 'lord', meaning 'day-lord', an epithet of the Sun. Notable people with the name include:
* Dinesh, Indian film actor
* Dinesh Baboo, Indi ...
, a Malaysian found guilty of trafficking heroin in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2011. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to him suffering from depression when he committed the crime.
* 27 May 2014:
Yip Mun Hei, a Singaporean convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2009. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2014 to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 15
strokes of the cane. He had an accomplice Leong Soy Yip (also sentenced to death) whose fate remains unknown.
* 28 October 2014:
Wilkinson A/L Primus, a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2009. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
in 2014 on the grounds that he was intellectually challenged and suffering from depression at the time of the crime.
* 20 April 2015:
Cheong Chun Yin
Cheong Chun Yin (张俊炎 Zhāng Jùnyán; born 1984) is a Malaysian and former death row convict who is currently serving life imprisonment in Singapore. Cheong and his accomplice Pang Siew Fum (彭秀芳 Péng Xiùfāng) were convicted of tr ...
, a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2008 and sentenced to death in 2010. He lost his appeal to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in 2010. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing and was re-sentenced in 2015 to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
and 15
strokes of the cane. His boss and accomplice, Pang Siew Fum, was also re-sentenced to life imprisonment on the same day, due to Pang suffering from depression at the time of the crime.
* 1 July 2015:
Kester Ng Wei Ren, a 47-year-old Singaporean caught trafficking in 23.38g of heroin on 12 August 2008. He tried to argue that he only meant to import only 9.92g of heroin while the rest of his drug supply was only meant for his own consumption. Ng was given the mandatory death penalty in 2010 and he also lost his appeal in the same year. After changes to the law took effect in 2013, Ng applied for re-sentencing and but he lost his chance to be re-sentenced on 1 July 2015, since he was not certified as a courier. He was presumably executed sometime after the loss of his re-sentencing application.
* 22 April 2016:
Phua Han Chuan Jeffery, a Singaporean and chronic
ketamine
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a recreational drug. It is one of the safest anesthetics, as, in contrast with opiates, ether, and propofol, it suppresses ne ...
abuser who was arrested on 20 January 2010 for trafficking more than 100g of heroin into Singapore at Woodlands Checkpoint. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in September 2011. Phua, who lost his three previous appeals against the sentence between July 2012 to September 2015, was granted a re-trial three years after the government implemented new changes to the death penalty laws (in 2013). He was diagnosed to be suffering from persistent depressive disorder, and the condition, coupled with his chronic ketamine addiction, was argued by Phua's lawyers as sufficient to impair his mental responsibility at the time of the crime. The High Court accepted the defence's arguments and thus re-sentenced Phua, then 30 years old, to life-long incarceration on 22 April 2016, with his sentence backdated to the date of his remand.
* 18 November 2016:
Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian convicted of trafficking cannabis in 2007 and sentenced to death in 2008. He lost his appeal to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in 2010. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he filed for re-sentencing in 2015 but withdrew in 2016. Later, he filed another appeal and a plea for presidential clemency but failed. He was eventually hanged on 18 November 2016 along with Malaysian drug trafficker Devendran A/L Supramaniam.
* 27 April 2022:
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, a Malaysian convicted of trafficking heroin in 2009 and sentenced to death in 2010. When changes to the law took effect in 2013, he applied for re-sentencing but had his application rejected. His appeals to the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
were dismissed in 2019. In May 2019 he planned to appeal to the
President of Singapore
The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the reserves and the integrity of the public service. The presidency is largely ceremonial, with the Cabinet led by the prime ...
for clemency, but he lost his plea and his execution date was scheduled on 10 November 2021.
However, Nagaenthran contracted
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
while in jail and he also made an appeal, hence his execution is postponed and the appeal itself was also postponed twice.
The appeal was heard on 1 March 2022, and it was finally dismissed on 29 March 2022. Nearly a month after the loss of his appeal, 34-year-old Nagaenthran was hanged at dawn on 27 April 2022.
Sentencing guidelines for murder (2015–present)
On 14 January 2015, a landmark ruling was made by the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
in the prosecution's appeal against the re-sentencing case of one former death row inmate,
Kho Jabing
Kho Jabing (4 January 1984 – 20 May 2016), later in life Muhammad Kho Abdullah, was a Malaysian of mixed Chinese and Iban descent from Sarawak, Malaysia, who partnered with a friend to rob and murder a Chinese construction worker named Cao Ru ...
, who was re-sentenced to
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...
and 24
strokes of the cane for the murder of Chinese national Cao Ruyin during a robbery under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code of Singapore. The landmark judgement in which the court, by a majority decision of 3–2, overturned Kho's life sentence and sentenced him to death a second time, had set the main guiding principles for all judges in Singapore to decide if the death penalty is appropriate for those murder cases committed with no intention to kill while exercising their discretion to impose either a life term or death for offenders responsible for such.
The main guiding principles set were as such:
# Whether an offender displayed viciousness during the time of the commission of the offence of murder;
# Whether an offender demonstrated a blatant disregard for human life at the time of the killing; and
# Whether the offender's actions sparked an outrage of the feelings of the community.
In Kho's case, the majority three of the five judges were satisfied that Kho, who had used a tree branch to bash Cao's head repeatedly (resulting in a completely shattered skull that caused Cao to die in a coma six days after the attack), had demonstrated both a blatant disregard for human life and viciousness while committing the crime, and Kho's actions were such that they had outraged the feelings of the community. Due to this, Kho was once again given the death penalty and he was eventually hanged on 20 May 2016.
at 3:30 pm after his appeal for a stay of execution was dismissed that same morning, a rare occurrence of an execution not carried out at dawn on Friday.
Consequently, the guiding principles from Kho's case also impacted on several subsequent murder cases and influenced the sentencing or appeal outcomes of these murder cases, which include the
2010 Kallang slashing
The 2010 Kallang slashing was a series of five robberies committed by a group of eight Malaysians from Sarawak, Malaysia in the night of 29 May 2010 and the early hours of the morning of 30 May 2010 (some of the culprits were not involved in the ...
, the 2016
Gardens by the Bay murder
Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock (; born ) is a criminal from Singapore who was convicted for the murder of his Chinese girlfriend Cui Yajie (), with whom he had an extra-marrital affair with. Khoo, who had previously been criminally convicted for cheating ...
, the 2016
Circuit Road murder
On 21 March 2016, 28-year-old Zhang Huaxiang (; 6 November 1987 – 21 March 2016), a China-born nurse working in Singapore, was murdered by her close male friend Boh Soon Ho (), a Malaysian working as a cafeteria worker in Singapore. Boh's motiv ...
, the 2016
Azlin Arujunah
On 23 October 2016, a five-year-old boy was pronounced dead at a children's hospital in Singapore. He was found to have been a victim of child abuse by his parents Azlin binte Arujunah and Ridzuan bin Mega Abdul Rahman for months leading up to h ...
case and the 2013
murder of Dexmon Chua Yizhi, etc.
Capital offences
In addition to the Penal Code, there are four
Acts of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament ...
that prescribe death as punishment for offences. According to the Think Centre, a Singaporean
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
group, 70% of hangings are for drug-related offences. All eight hangings in 2017 were for drug-related offences that year, and 11 of 13 hangings in 2018 were also for drug-related offences.
Penal Code
Under the Penal Code, the commission of the following offences may result in the death penalty:
* Waging or attempting to wage war or abetting the waging of war against the
Government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
(§121)
* Offences against the
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
's person (§121A)
*
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
that endangers life (§130B) (mandatory)
*
Genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
resulting in death (§130E) (mandatory)
* Abetting of
mutiny
Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...
(§132)
*
Perjury
Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...
that results in the execution of an innocent person (§194)
*
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
(§302) (mandatory for S300(a) of the Penal Code; discretionary for S300(b), S300(c) and S300(d) of the Penal Code)
* Abetting the
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
of a person under the age of 18 or an "insane" person (§305)
*
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions.
Canada
Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seven ye ...
by a prisoner serving a
life sentence
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
(§307 (2)) (mandatory)
*
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
in order to commit murder (§364)
*
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
committed by five or more people that results in the death of a person (§396)
Since the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2007, Singapore no longer allows for the death penalty for
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
and mutiny.
Arms Offences Act
The
Arms Offences Act
The Arms Offences Act 1973 is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalizes the illegal possession of arms and ammunition and the carrying, trafficking, and usage of arms. The law is designed specifically to make acts of ownership ...
regulates criminal offences dealing with firearms and weapons. Any person who uses or attempts to use arms (Section 4) can face execution, as well as any person who uses or attempts to use arms to commit scheduled offences (Section 4A). These scheduled offences are being a member of an unlawful assembly; rioting; certain offences against the person; abduction or kidnapping; extortion; burglary; robbery; preventing or resisting arrest; vandalism; mischief. Any person who is an accomplice (Section 5) to a person convicted of arms use during a scheduled offence can likewise be hanged.
Trafficking in arms (Section 6) is a capital offence in Singapore. Under the Arms Offences Act, trafficking is defined as being in unlawful possession of more than two firearms.
One notable case involving a conviction under this act was the
murder of Lim Hock Soon
Tan Chor Jin (; 29 March 1966 – 9 January 2009), also known by his alias Tony Kia, was a Singaporean gang leader known for fatally shooting 41-year-old Lim Hock Soon, his former friend and nightclub owner, using a semi-automatic Beretta 0.22 ...
, where
Ang Soon Tong
Ang Soon Tong () is a secret society based in Singapore and Malaysia. According to a former police officer, the society was active as early as the 1950s, mainly in the Sembawang area. In 1998, a 19-year-old youth was arrested for setting up a we ...
triad leader
Tan Chor Jin
Tan Chor Jin (; 29 March 1966 – 9 January 2009), also known by his alias Tony Kia, was a Singaporean gang leader known for fatally shooting 41-year-old Lim Hock Soon, his former friend and nightclub owner, using a semi-automatic Beretta 0.22 ...
used a
Beretta
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (; "Pietro Beretta Weapon Factory") is a privately held Italian firearms manufacturing company operating in several countries. Its firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and milita ...
pistol to fatally shoot Lim, a nightclub owner, to death after robbing him and his family of their valuables. Tan was initially charged under the Penal Code for murder but the charge was later amended into one of illegal discharge of firearms under the Arms Offences Act. Tan was eventually convicted and
executed
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
by
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
under this Act on 9 January 2009.
Misuse of Drugs Act
![SingaporeEmbarkationCard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/SingaporeEmbarkationCard.png)
Since 1975, after the proposal by then Minister for Home Affairs
Chua Sian Chin, the death penalty was mandatory for drug trafficking, should the amount of whichever drugs exceed the capital threshold.
Under Schedule 2 of the
Misuse of Drugs Act, any person importing or exporting more than the following quantities of drugs receives a mandatory death sentence:
* 1200 grams of
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
and containing more than 30 grams of morphine (§5 and §7, (2)(b));
* 30 grams of
morphine
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a analgesic, pain medication, and is also commonly used recreational drug, recreationally, or to make ...
(§5 and §7, (3)(b));
* 15 grams of
diamorphine
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brown ...
(heroin) (diamo (§5 and §7, (4)(b));
* 30 grams of
cocaine
Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...
(§5 and §7, (5)(b));
* 500 grams of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
(§5 and §7, (6)(b));
* 1000 grams of cannabis mixture (§5 and §7, (7)(b));
* 200 grams of
cannabis resin
Hashish ( ar, حشيش, ()), also known as hash, "dry herb, hay" is a drug made by compressing and processing parts of the cannabis plant, typically focusing on flowering buds (female flowers) containing the most trichomes. European Monitorin ...
(§5 and §7, (8)(b));
* 250 grams of
methamphetamine
Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamph ...
(§5 and §7, (9)(b)).
Death sentences are also mandatory for any person caught manufacturing:
* Morphine, or any salt of morphine, ester of morphine or salt of ester of morphine (§6, (2));
* Diamorphine (heroin) or any salt of diamorphine (§6, (3));
* Cocaine or any salt of cocaine (§6, (4));
* Methamphetamine (§6, (5)).
Under the Act:
Furthermore, any person who has a controlled drug in his possession shall be presumed to have known the nature of that drug.
The majority of executions in Singapore are for drug offences. Since 2010, 23 prisoners have been executed for drug offences, while only five have been executed for other offences, such as murder. Death penalty supporters, such as blogger Benjamin Chang, claim that Singapore has one of the lowest prevalence of drug abuse worldwide. Chang claims, for instance, that over two decades, the number of drug abusers arrested each year has declined by two-thirds, from over 6,000 in the early 1990s to about 2,000 in 2011. The validity of these figures is disputed by other Singaporeans, such as drugs counsellor Tony Tan. The
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the ...
notes that Singapore remains a transit destination for drug traffickers in Asia, drug seizures continue to increase, and heroin drug use within Singapore is continuing to rise.
Internal Security Act
The preamble of the
Internal Security Act Internal Security Act may refer to:
* Internal Security Act 1960, former Malaysian law
*Internal Security Act (Singapore)
* McCarran Internal Security Act, a United States federal law
*Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, a South African law, rename ...
states that it is an Act to "provide for the internal security of Singapore, preventive detention, the prevention of subversion, the suppression of organised violence against persons and property in specified areas of Singapore, and for matters incidental thereto". The
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
has the power to designate certain security areas. Any person caught in the possession or with someone in possession of firearms, ammunition or explosives in a security area can be punished by death.
Kidnapping Act
The terms of the
Kidnapping Act designate abduction, wrongful restraint or wrongful confinement for ransom as capital offences.
Public debate
Death row conditions
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
reports that death row inmates are housed in cells of roughly three square metres (32 square feet).
Walls make up three sides, while the fourth is made up of vertical bars. They are equipped with a toilet, a sleeping mat, and a bucket for washing. Exercise is permitted twice a day for half an hour at a time.
Four days before the execution, the condemned is allowed to watch television or listen to the radio.
Special meals of their choice are also cooked, if within the prison budget. Visiting rights are increased from one 20-minute visit per week to a maximum of four hours each day,
though no physical contact is allowed with any visitors.
In addition, two days before an execution, an inmate is allowed to have a photo shoot and be given their own clothes to pose during a photoshoot; the photo will be given to their families as remembrance.
Public response
Public debate in the Singaporean news media on the death penalty is almost non-existent, although the topic is occasionally discussed in the midst of highly publicised criminal cases. Efforts to garner public opinion on the issue are rare, although it has been suggested that the population is influenced by a
legalist philosophy which holds that harsh punishment deters crime and helps maintain social peace and harmony. In October 2007, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs
Ho Peng Kee
Ho Peng Kee ( zh, s=何炳基, p=Hé Bǐngjī; born 9 May 1954) is a Singaporean legal academic and former politician. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Senior Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and the Minis ...
said in
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
that "Certain of us may hold the view that the death penalty should be abolished. But in a survey done two years ago, reported in the ''
Straits Times
''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establishe ...
'', 95% of Singaporeans feel that the death penalty should stay. This is something which has helped us to be safe and secure all these years and it is only reserved for a very few select offences."
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam
Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam ( ta, ஜோசுவா பெஞ்சமின் ஜெயரத்தினம்; 5 January 1926 – 30 September 2008), better known as J. B. Jeyaretnam or by his initials JBJ, was a Singaporean politician, law ...
, an opposition
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, was reportedly only given a few minutes to speak in Parliament on the issue before his comments were rebutted by Ho Peng Kee.
There were a few instances where in certain high-profile cases, the public would argue for the death penalty to be imposed on those who allegedly committed murder. In the case of
Annie Ee Yu Lian
Annie Ee Yu Lian (余玉莲 Yú Yùlián; – 13 April 2015) was a Singaporean waitress who was cruelly abused for eight months before she died on 13 April 2015 at the age of 26. Ee's abusers were her 31-year-old childhood friend Tan Hui Zhen ( ...
who was abused and murdered by her two friends, some Singaporeans were angered at the cruelty displayed by the offenders and felt that the sentences (which were between 14 and 16 years) for grievous hurt were too light, which prompted them to petition for harsher punishments; some even demanded for the death penalty to be imposed on the couple. In another case regarding the death of four-year-old Mohamad Danial Mohamad Nasser due to child abuse perpertuated by his mother and her boyfriend, some Singaporeans felt that their sentences of ten to eleven years were too light and petitioned to the courts to sentence the couple to death.
Younger generations of Singaporeans tend to have a more liberal approach towards drug use. The government, in response, has introduced education programmes on the dangers of drugs. There were cases of ex-drug convicts who also advocated against the use of drugs; some even agree that the death penalty was effective. A former trafficker once stated that in the past, he would always make sure the measurement of his delivered drugs were below the minimum amount to avoid capital punishment. A female prisoner and drug convict also spoke up about the death penalty while being interviewed in prison, where she was serving 26 years' jail since 2014. She agreed to the relevance and effect of the death penalty in stopping people from selling and taking drugs, as she knew how drug trafficking caused damage to families and inflict sufferings especially to the children of drug addicts.
In the aftermath of several executions, there were discussions among the Singaporean public about the need for compassion for some death row inmates, owing to arguments that many death row inmates had come from low-income families or had drug addictions before ending up on death row. However, the public sentiments remained leaning towards capital punishment for drugs, owing to arguments concerning rampant rates of drug trafficking in the
Golden Triangle
Golden Triangle may refer to:
Places
Asia
* Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production
* Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development
* Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist ...
in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, the effectiveness of the death penalty in maintaining Singapore's low crime rate, and the impact drugs have had on the addicts and their families.
When 31-year-old Singaporean Shen Hanjie was sentenced to death for trafficking 34.94g of pure heroin in October 2022, a huge majority of the netizens showed support for the death sentence in Shen's case, with some expressing sympathy for his family, especially his parents. Most of the supporters also stated that the death sentence should be deployed for drug crimes due to its strong deterrent effect.
Protests and opposition
Before the hanging of
Shanmugam Murugesu, a three-hour vigil was held on 6 May 2005. The organisers of the event at the
Furama Hotel
The Furama Hotel () was a 33-storey hotel in Central, Hong Kong, located at 1 Connaught Road Central. The site is now occupied by the AIA Central office building.
History
The Furama Hotel was designed by Eric Cumine Associates and built for the ...
said it was the first such public gathering organised solely by members of the public against the death penalty in Singapore. Murugesu had been arrested after being caught in possession of six packets containing just over 1kg of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...
after returning from Malaysia. He admitted knowledge of one of the packets, which contained 300 grams, but not the other five.
The event was reportedly unreported by mainstream media outlets, and was later shut down by the police.
After the hanging of Australian citizen
Van Tuong Nguyen
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
on 2 December 2005, Susan Chia, province leader of the
Good Shepherd Sisters
The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a ...
in Singapore, declared that "the death penalty is cruel, inhumane and it violates the right to life." Chia and several other nuns comforted Nguyen's mother two weeks before his execution for heroin trafficking.
Singapore's death penalty laws have drawn comments in the media. For example, science fiction author
William Gibson
William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...
, while a journalist, wrote a travel piece on Singapore that he sarcastically titled "
Disneyland with the Death Penalty
"Disneyland with the Death Penalty" is a 4,500-word article about Singapore written by William Gibson. His first major piece of non-fiction, it was first published as the cover story for ''Wired'' magazine's September/October 1993 issue (1.4).
...
".
In 2010, British author
Alan Shadrake published his book, ''Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock'', which was critical of the
Singapore judicial system. Shadrake was arrested whilst promoting the book in Singapore and later sentenced to six weeks in prison for
contempt of court
Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
. He is also charged with
criminal defamation. The case attracted worldwide attention, putting the Singapore legal system in the spotlight. Shadrake apologised to the court if he had offended the sensitivities of the judiciary and did not mean to undermine the judges or the judiciary, but stood by his book, apart from a mistake contained within. The judge,
Quentin Loh, dismissed his apology as "nothing more than a tactical ploy in court to obtain a reduced sentence". Shadrake's conviction for
scandalising the court was upheld by the
Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...
.
On 5 October 2018, Singapore carried out three executions of drug traffickers - Zainudin bin Mohamed, Abdul Wahid Bin Ismail, and Mohsen Bin Na’im, it led to the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and 28 civil society organizations in Asia showing condemnation over the triple hangings, and these groups the death sentence was a grave violation of the right to life, which was "the most fundamental and essential human right for other rights to be realized". They also argued that the executions of Zainudin, Abdul Wahid and Mohsen did not serve any purpose for the island-state and its citizens in terms of fulfilling the ends of justice.
In March 2022, when Singapore dismissed the final appeal of Malaysian death row prisoner
Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam
Nagaenthran a/l K. Dharmalingam (13 September 1988 – 27 April 2022) was a Malaysians, Malaysian drug trafficker who was convicted of trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin in April 2009 upon entering Singapore from Malaysia at Woodlands Checkpoint ...
and later authorized the execution of Singaporean drug convict
Abdul Kahar Othman
Abdul Kahar bin Othman (1953/1954 – 30 March 2022) was a Singaporean drug trafficker who was found guilty in 2013 of two charges of trafficking a total of 66.77 grams of heroin in Singapore, and later sentenced to death by the High Court in ...
, which was its first execution during the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic, there were 400 Singaporeans, including rights activists
Jolovan Wham,
Kirsten Han
Kirsten Han is a Singaporean journalist and social activist. In 2017, she co-founded the Malaysian-based online journalism platform '' New Naratif'' with Sonny Liew and Thum Ping Tjin, and served as its editor-in-chief till March 2020.
Activis ...
and Kokila Annamalai, who took part in a protest against the government's use of the death penalty at
Hong Lim Park
Hong Lim Park, formerly known as Hong Lim Green and Dunman's Green, is a heritage park in the Downtown Core district of Singapore located next to the Parkroyal Collection Pickering hotel and Clarke Quay station.
The park is notable locally a ...
. With regards to Abdul Kahar's execution, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU) condemned it and stated that capital punishment is a cruel and inhumane punishment, which not only failed to deter crime but also defied both humanity's dignity and integrity. Two days prior to Nagaenthran's execution (which took place on 27 April 2022), a candlelight vigil was held on his behalf.
Law Society review
In December 2005, the
Law Society revealed that it has set up a committee, named ''Review Committee on Capital Punishment'', to examine capital punishment in the country. The President of the Society,
Senior Counsel
The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...
Philip Jeyaretnam, said that the main focus of the review was on issues regarding administering the death penalty such as whether it should be mandatory. A report of the review would be submitted to the
Ministry of Law. On 6 November 2006, they were invited to give its views on proposed amendments to the Penal Code to the Ministry of Home Affairs. In their report, issued on 30 March 2007, they argued against the mandatory death penalty:
The death penalty should be discretionary for the offences where the death sentence is mandatory – murder, drug trafficking, firearms offences and sedition – a position similar to that for the offence of kidnapping. There are strong arguments for changing the mandatory nature of capital punishment in Singapore. Judges should be given the discretion to impose the death penalty only where deemed appropriate.
Singapore government's response
The Singapore government states that the death penalty is only used in the most serious of crimes, sending, they say, a strong message to potential offenders. They point out that in 1994 and 1999 the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
failed to adopt
United Nations resolution
A United Nations resolution (UN resolution) is a formal text adopted by a United Nations (UN) body. Although any UN body can issue resolutions, in practice most resolutions are issued by the Security Council or the General Assembly.
Legal stat ...
s calling for a moratorium on the death penalty worldwide, as a majority of countries opposed such a move.
Singapore's Permanent Representative to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
wrote a letter to the
Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial
Extrajudicial punishment is a punishment for an alleged crime or offense which is carried out without legal process or supervision by a court or tribunal through a legal proceeding.
Politically motivated
Extrajudicial punishment is often a fe ...
, summary or arbitrary executions in 2001 which stated:
:"... the death penalty is primarily a criminal justice issue, and therefore is a question for the sovereign jurisdiction of each country
..the right to life is not the only right, and
..it is the duty of societies and governments to decide how to balance competing rights against each other."
In January 2004, the
Ministry of Home Affairs
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
issued a response to
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
's report, "Singapore: The death penalty - A hidden toll of executions". It defended Singapore's policy to retain the death penalty, predicating its arguments on, among others, the following grounds:
*There is no international consensus on whether the death penalty should be abolished.
*Each country has the sovereign right to decide on its own judicial system, taking into account its own circumstances.
*The death penalty has been effective in keeping Singapore one of the safest places in the world to work and live in.
*The application of the death penalty is only reserved for "very serious crimes".
The Ministry of Home Affairs also refuted Amnesty International's claims of the majority of the executed being foreigners, and that it was "mostly the poor, least educated, and vulnerable people who are executed". The Ministry stated: "Singaporeans, and not foreigners, were the majority of those executed... Of those executed from 1993 to 2003, 95% were above 21 years of age, and 80% had received formal education. About 80% of those who had been sentenced to capital punishment had employment before their convictions."
Following the hanging of
Van Tuong Nguyen
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
in 2005,
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Lee Hsien Loong
Lee Hsien Loong (; born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former brigadier-general who has been serving as Prime Minister of Singapore and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party since 2004. He has been the Member of Par ...
reiterated the government's position, stating that "The evil inflicted on thousands of people with drug trafficking demands that we must tackle the source by punishing the traffickers rather than trying to pick up the pieces afterwards... It's a law which is approved of by Singapore's inhabitants and which allows us to reduce the drug problem."
In October 2020, Law Minister
K. Shanmugam
Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam ( ta, காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்; born 26 March 1959), better known as K. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as Minister for Law since 2008 ...
emphasised that the death penalty is a powerful deterrent to capital crimes in Singapore. He cited the statistics of the rate of firearms-related offences and kidnapping cases had dropped dramatically after the introduction of the death penalty as evidence of its deterrence. Shanmugam also cited that after the government mandates the death penalty since 1991, the average net amount of opium trafficked dropped by 66% and many drug traffickers are illegally transporting less and less amounts of drugs to avoid the punishment. The government conducted surveys on Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans, and the majority of both groups responded that the death penalty is more effective than
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
in discouraging people from committing capital offences.
During a June 2022
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
interview, Shanmugam, who was asked by the host and journalist Stephen Sackur regarding the death penalty for drugs, stated that the death penalty in Singapore was the right punishment adopted by the government to protect Singaporeans and save lives. He also cited a 2021 report by the World Health Organisation that showed there were 500,000 deaths linked to drug abuse in just one year. Shanmugam added that in the 1990s, Singapore was arresting about 6,000 people a year for drugs, but this has now dropped to about 3,000 people a year. He stated that it goes to show how the draconian laws deployed by Singapore on narcotics offences has safeguarded the lives of many locals and maintains a safe society in Singapore. The death penalty response by Shanmugam during the BBC interview was well-received and supported by many members of the public on social media, who also voiced their support for capital punishment for drugs in Singapore.
In light of the execution of
to express his support for the death penalty for drug crimes in Singapore and the execution of drug traffickers. Singh nonetheless argued that there should be changes made to rectify the shortcomings in determining the extent of one's cooperation with the authorities during investigations before sentencing, citing cases of traffickers receiving death sentences before courts decided they were couriers and could sentence them for life, as well as cases like Abdul Rahim's, who was sentenced to death despite being a courier and having provided substantive assistance. Singh also expressed concern about the need to curb the frequent abuse of court processes by drug traffickers and their lawyers.
The
(MHA) revealed that from 2013 to early 2022, certificates of substantive assistance were issued to 82 out of 104 drug traffickers regardless of nationality, while there were 14 out of the remaining 22 sentenced to death and the other eight traffickers sentenced to life imprisonment due to mental illnesses. Another data revealed that 78% of the traffickers were not subjected to capital punishment despite having brought drugs exceeding the capital threshold, as a reslt of plea bargains to reduce their capital charges or certifications for substantive assistance.
, who was wanted for the double murder of a couple whose corpses were discovered abandoned in a car at
. However, McCrea, who was arrested in Australia, was not extradited as Australia, which abolished the death penalty for all offences by then, was not legally allowed to extradite suspects back to countries where they would face the death sentence. It was only after Singapore gave the Australian government the assurance that McCrea would not be hanged even if he was convicted of murder, which allowed McCrea to be sent back to Singapore for trial. McCrea was eventually convicted of culpable homicide and destroying evidence of a murder case, and sentenced to a total of 24 years in jail. This left an impact and precedent on Singapore's avenues to successfully negotiating for extradition of suspects from countries where the death penalty or caning was not practiced, including the extradition of suspected bank robber
, whom the Singapore government promised would not face caning for robbery. Roach was eventually sent back to Singapore, where he later served five years in prison, and he was pardoned from caning by
.
In 2012, a number of American elected officials and office-seekers suggested that Singapore's success in combating drug abuse should be examined as a model for the United States.
, said that the United States could learn a thing or two from nations like Singapore when it came to drug trafficking, noting that "executing a handful of people saves thousands and thousands of lives." The last execution in
took place in 1963. Several courts have ruled that the death penalty violates the
''). In 2007, the state of New York abolished the death penalty. 22 states, plus
in 2021. However, certain states, such as
repeated his longstanding advocacy for Singaporean methods in the United States'
during campaign interviews and speeches.
in September 2003.
Numbers in curly brackets are the number of foreign citizens executed, according to information disclosed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Detailed statistics were not released by the
between 2000 and 2006. Singapore's
...