Singapore Executes Malaysian After Final Appeal Dismissed
Dennis Wong
2016-05-20 - Kuching
2016-05-20 - Kuching
Lawyers for Malaysian Kho Jabing, Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss
(left) and Alfred Dodwell (right), leave a courtroom in Singapore after a
five-judge panel dismissed their appeal, May 20, 2016.
AFP
Singapore hanged Kho Jabing of Sarawak, Malaysia, on Friday
afternoon for killing a construction worker eight years ago, after a
last-minute stay of execution was lifted.
Rachel Zeng of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign confirmed
that Koh, 32, was executed at 3:30 p.m. at the Changi Prison after
meeting with his family.
Kho had been granted the stay on Thursday night after his legal team
filed an appeal. On Friday morning, a five-judge panel dismissed the
appeal, clearing the way for the unusual afternoon execution. Singapore
normally carries out capital punishment at dawn.
“This court should not be seen as a device to undermine the legal
process. We cannot allow applications made at the eleventh hour, one
after another,” Judge of Appeal Chao Hick Tin said in dismissing the
appeal Friday, according to reports.
Kho’s family, who could not be reached for comment Friday, received a
letter from the Singapore Prison Service last week stating the
execution was scheduled for the morning of May 20.
The execution brought a sudden end to a six-year legal saga that
included a period in which Kho’s sentence was changed to life in prison.
Six-year saga
Kho was sentenced to die in 2010 after the Singapore High Court found
him guilty of using a tree branch to kill construction worker Cao Ruyin
during a robbery attempt in 2008. Cao, who died six days after being
beaten, suffered multiple skull fractures.
In August 2013, following revisions to Singapore’s mandatory death
penalty laws, a court sentenced Kho to life and 24 strokes of the cane
instead. The prosecution challenged the decision and the top court
changed the sentence to death.
Kho’s execution was stayed in November 2015 when his lawyers
challenged the verdict. On April 5, the Supreme Court upheld the death
sentence.
On May 13, Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem told BenarNews the
state government had exhausted all efforts to persuade Singaporean
authorities to grant Kho clemency.
Condemnation
Global rights group Amnesty International (AI) condemned the
execution since it was “mere hours” after Kho’s last chance for a
reprieve was dismissed.
“It is disgraceful that Kho Jabing was executed, particularly with
such indecent haste, after his final appeal was denied this morning,”
AI’s Deputy Director of South East Asia and Pacific Regional Office
Josef Benedict said in a statement.
AI’s Malaysia chapter Executive Director Shamini Darshini said that
Singapore had taken a step back toward the ranks of countries that use
cruel and inhumane forms of punishment.
“He has variously [been] sentenced to death, re-sentenced to life
imprisonment and caning, and sentenced to death once more. The ordeal
Kho’s family had been put through for the past six years would have been
puzzling and utterly cruel,” she said.
Singapore executed six people in 2014 and 2015 – five for drug
offenses and one for murder. The government did not release details on
their nationalities.
Malaysia has not abolished capital punishment and the government on Tuesday announced 1,041 prisoners are on death row.
In November, Nancy Shukri of the Prime Minister’s department of legal
affairs, said the Malaysian government planned to submit a bill to
abolish the mandatory death sentence for several crimes, particularly
drug-related offenses and possession of firearms.- Benar News - 21/5/2016
20 May 2016
Justice hurried, is
justice denied
The Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign (SADPC) strongly
condemns the execution of Kho Jabing.
His notice of appeal was filed at 11pm on 19 May and at
midnight, his legal team received the letter from the court informing them that
the hearing would take place at 9am the next morning. This gave them
insufficient time to adequately prepare legal submissions to deal with the
complexities of the issues that lay before the court, i.e., the Constitutional
arguments raised.
The application was heard despite repeated adjournment
requests, which were turned down. The matter was heard for 3 hours, and
dismissed at about 12.30pm. In our opinion, more time should have been granted
so that Mr Alfred Dodwell, Jabing’s new legal counsel, could build a stronger
case as to why his arguments deserve a day of hearing in court. With this,
we believe that justice hurried, is justice buried.
Furthermore, Mr Alfred Dodwell, the legal counsel
representing Jabing, asked for advance notification of the execution to be
given so as to allow the family to spend more time for the family to be with
him. Both the prosecution counsel and the judges had no objections. Therefore,
we were utterly shocked to hear the news that he was executed a mere 3 hours
after the hearing at 1530hrs on the afternoon of 20 May. We understand that
this is unprecedented as accused persons are usually executed at dawn on
Friday, by convention. We were also saddened by the fact that the family
managed to spend their last moments with him only through a televisit.
We would like to reiterate that we do not condone whatever
he had done and have no intentions to minimise the hurt that his actions had
caused the family of his victim Cao Ruyin. However, we have always held
the view that capital punishment is the most premeditated form of murder where
every step towards the execution has been carefully planned and calculated with
the purpose to end the life of a person. Therefore we do not think that an
enlightened and progressive society should utilise an act that it holds in
contempt, that is, murder, by seeking justice through state sponsored murder.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
Index: ASA 36/4077/201
20 May 2016
Singapore: Amnesty International Deplores
Execution of Kho Jabing
Amnesty
International strongly condemns the sudden execution of Kho Jabing,
undertaken with shameful haste today. The rushed execution, that
occurred mere hours after his final appeal was rejected, marked a cruel
and inhuman end to Kho Jabing’s life after a six year legal battle in
the courts.
Kho Jabing, a Malaysian national, was executed at 3.30pm
on 20 May 2016. Kho Jabing and a co-defendant were convicted of murder
on 30 July 2010 and both were sentenced to the mandatory death penalty.
However, after the 2012 review of the mandatory death penalty laws, on
14 August 2013, the High Court found the murder to be non-intentional
and resentenced Kho Jabing to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the
cane. On 14 January 2015, the Court of Appeal re-imposed the death
penalty on Kho Jabing in a three-to-two split decision.
An
appeal admitted on 3 November 2015, three days before his scheduled
execution, was dismissed on 5 April 2016. Another last minute
application by his lawyers that was granted on 19 May 2016, resulted in a
temporary stay of execution. On the morning of 20 May 2016, Kho Jabing
appeared in Court, hoping for a chance of reprieve. However, he was
executed not long after this appeal was dismissed.
Amnesty
International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception
regardless of the nature of the crime. The taking of another’s life by
execution is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment - and
the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated as long
as the death penalty is kept on the law books. Such practices violate
the right to life, a fundamental right of every human being.
Furthermore, under international law and standards the use of the death
penalty must be restricted to the “most serious crimes” which has been
interpreted to mean intentional killing.
In
this instance, Amnesty International also has strong concerns around
the basis on which the death sentence of Kho Jabing was re-imposed,
after a split decision in the courts. In modern day Singapore, the
answer to crime does not lie within
the
hangman’s noose. Moreover, there is no evidence that the death penalty
is more of a deterrent to crime than life imprisonment.
The
execution of Kho Jabing marks a huge step backwards for Singapore which
has reduced the implementation of the death penalty in recent years.
Following the official moratorium on executions established in Singapore
from 2012 to 2013, at least 13 people have had their death sentences
reviewed and eventually commuted and new sentencing discretion has
resulted in several individuals being spared the gallows.
We
urge the authorities of Singapore to immediately halt all executions
and commute all death sentences, as first steps towards the full
abolition of the death penalty.
______________________________
Regards,
Santhosh
Kannan
Communications
Coordinator
D-2-33A, 8 Avenue
Jalan Sungai Jernih 8/ 1
Section 8
46050 Petaling Jaya
Selangor, Malaysia
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