Oct. 18
SINGAPORE:
Amnesty Challenges Singapore on Executions
Rights group Amnesty challenged Singapore Tuesday to disclose the total
number of executions this year, saying the wealthy island has put more
people to death since 1991 than any other country on a per capita basis.
"In the absence of full disclosure of official statistics, the
organization remains concerned that Singapore may continue to have the
highest number of per capita executions in the world," Amnesty
International Southeast Asian official Tim Parritt said.
Amnesty's call comes a day before Singapore's Court of Appeal rules on the
case of 24-year-old Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, an ethnic Vietnamese man
found guilty in March of smuggling 14 ounces of heroin and sentenced to
death.
About 400 people have been hanged in Singapore since 1991, mostly for drug
trafficking, giving the Southeast Asian island of 4.2 million people
possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its
population, Amnesty said.
Singapore's drug laws are among the world's harshest. Anyone aged 18 or
over convicted of carrying more than 15 grammes of heroin faces mandatory
execution by hanging.
Nguyen's lawyers appealed the verdict and the London-based human rights
group said it would seek clemency from Singapore President S.R. Nathan if
the death sentence is upheld.
Amnesty said in January that executions in Singapore were "shockingly
high" and "shrouded in secrecy," calling on the state to abolish the death
penality by issuing a moratorium on all executions and commuting all death
sentences to prison terms.
Singapore's government said it imposed capital punishment "only for the
most serious crimes," that the death penalty deterred major drug
syndicates establishing themselves in Singapore and that Singapore applied
standards of transparency.
Although prison officials confirmed last year that about 400 people had
been executed since 1991, government officials declined requests by
Reuters to specify how many people have been sent to the gallows this
year.
"There is this climate of secrecy," Parritt told Reuters by telephone from
London. "It's shrouded with half-disclosure, and that continues. We
believe this should be out in full public debate."
Nguyen was arrested at Singapore's airport in December 2002 while in
transit from Cambodia to Melbourne. A policewoman discovered a package of
heroin taped to his back during a pre-flight security check, and another
in his hand luggage.
He said had carried the drugs for a Sydney-based drug syndicate to pay off
legal fees owed by his twin brother.
(source: Reuters)
