Peine de mort | SINGAPUR

URGENT APPEAL: The UIA-IROL calls for the non-execution of a Singaporean death row prisoner.

On Thursday, 1 August 2024, the UIA-IROL learned that a Singaporean death row prisoner was issued an execution notice on Monday, 29 July 2024, informing him and his family that his execution has been scheduled for Friday, 2 August 2024.

Firstly, this notice period is shorter than the usual seven days granted.

Secondly, it was issued before the written judgment was delivered in a case brought by the prisoner to challenge his conviction. Consequently, his execution was scheduled before the court's judgment was pronounced.

Thirdly, this prisoner is involved in a separate ongoing joint application, with a hearing scheduled for September 2024, raising concerns about the state's refusal to allow him to pursue this application.

In recent years, non-governmental organisations and human rights defenders have noted a growing use of “abuse of process” by the courts and the government, talking about the need for “finality” in the legal process and warning lawyers against filing supposedly “frivolous” cases. They also impose personal costs against those who dare to bring such challenges before the court. 

The Transformative Justice Collective, which works closely with multiple families of death row prisoners, has witnessed plenty of abuses and contempt. The organisation has reported human rights violations of death row prisoners - in addition to the right to life and the prohibition of torture regarding their sentence to death - especially the right to dignity, the right to a fair trial, and the right and the right to respect for private and family life. For instance, the organisation has seen a prisoner kept in court until almost 1am when his execution was scheduled for 6am the same day, so that he missed out on precious time with his family and his last meal.

According to Amnesty International, executions in Singapore continue after being resumed in 2022. All of those executed were convicted of drug-related charges and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty. Proceedings in many cases failed to meet international fair trial standards. Among those hanged this year was Saridewi DJAMANI, marking the first known execution of a woman in Singapore since 2004.

In its World report 2024 Human rights watch also disclosed that Singapore’s government carried out its highest number of executions in more than a decade and sought to intimidate anti-death penalty activists.

Additionally, Singaporean human rights lawyer M. RAVI, a prominent defender of death row inmates, was suspended from practicing law for five years for contempt of court when he was defending a death row prisoner. This suspension has been widely condemned by international organizations, including the UIA-IROL, which urges Singapore to uphold the rule of law.

The UIA-IROL calls on the authorities in Singapore to suspend the execution to death of this Singaporean death row prisoner and for full abolition of the death penalty. The State of Singapore must halt these executions and declare a moratorium on its use of capital punishment.

The UIA-IROL also recalls the non-deterrent nature of the death penalty and the fact that, because of the death-row syndrome suffered by condemned prisoners while awaiting execution, this punishment constitutes “irreversible torture”.