A few days ago, Lawyers For Liberty issued a statement highlighting shocking manner in which persons were hanged in Singapore - they also stated that they raised this issue with Singapore since November but did not get any response leading to the issuance of a media statement on 16/1/2020 ...the media statement by Lawyers For Liberty and related media reports can be seen at.
'...barbaric, unlawful execution methods in Singapore...'? Malaysia must act to uphold justice?
'...This officer is prepared to come forward and testify at the appropriate forum. His evidence follows below:
He and other prison officers were instructed to carry out the following brutal procedure whenever the rope breaks during a hanging, which happens from time to time.a) The prison officer is instructed to pull the rope around the neck of the prisoner towards him.
b) Meanwhile, another prison officer will apply pressure by pulling the body in the opposite direction.
c) The first officer must then kick the back of the neck of the prisoner with great force in order to break it.
d) The officers are told to kick the back of the neck because that would be consistent with death by hanging.
e) The officers are told not to kick more than 2 times, so that there will be no tell-tale marks in case there is an autopsy.
f) Strict orders are also given not to divulge the above to other prison staff not involved in executions....
Now Singapore refutes the allegations...and have invoked the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) and ordered the LFL and three parties that have shared the allegations - Singaporean activist Kirsten Han, The Online Citizen website and Yahoo Singapore - to correct the false statements....
Should not these allegations that is coming allegedly from '... received this information from a Singapore Prison Services (SPS)
officer who had served at the execution chamber in Changi prison, and
himself carried out hangings...' , hence a credible source, ought to INVESTIGATED FIRST by Singapore to determine whether it is TRUE or not.
Using POFMA gives the impression that Singapore is taking it as 'FALSE' without even conducting an independent investigation...Remember, an investigation may reveal that this was the practice of 'few', who maybe wrongly believed this was government policy and direction...When highlighted, it gives the opportunity to Singapore government to investigate and make clear its policy and directions to ALL persons that carry out the hangings...
According the LFL statement, they '... had also written to the Singapore authorities and informed them
that we are prepared to meet them and handover the evidence in our
possession. However, the Singapore government has met our disclosures with
deafening silence. Significantly, they have also not denied our
allegation of brutality in carrying out hangings, which has been widely
reported....'
MHA refutes Malaysia NGO's claims against S'pore's execution method, issues Pofma correction orders against parties
SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has slammed
Malaysia-based non-governmental organisation Lawyers for Liberty's (LFL)
allegations about Singapore's execution method as "untrue, baseless and
preposterous".
It has also invoked the Protection from Online Falsehoods and
Manipulation Act (Pofma) and ordered the LFL and three parties that have
shared the allegations - Singaporean activist Kirsten Han,
The Online
Citizen website and Yahoo Singapore - to correct the false statements.
This is the fifth case where Pofma has been invoked since it came into effect on Oct 2 last year.
On Jan 16, LFL said in a statement that prison officers in Singapore
were instructed to kick the back of the neck of a prisoner with great
force to break it if the rope breaks during a hanging and that the
Singapore Government approved of "unlawful methods" that are used to
cover up an execution if the rope breaks.
"These allegations are entirely unfounded," MHA said on Wednesday (Jan 22).
Singapore executes its condemned prisoners by hanging.
The ministry said that all judicial executions in Singapore are carried out in strict compliance with the law.
"All
judicial executions are conducted in the presence of the Superintendent
of the Prison and a medical doctor, among others. The law also requires a
coroner (who is a judicial officer of the State Courts) to conduct an
inquiry within 24 hours of the execution to satisfy himself that the
execution was carried out duly and properly," MHA said.
It added: "For the record, the rope used for judicial executions has
never broken before, and prison officers certainly do not receive any
'special training to carry out the brutal execution method' as alleged.
Any acts such as those described in the LFL statement would have been
thoroughly investigated and dealt with."
The ministry said that the LFL has a history of publishing
sensational and untrue stories to seek attention in the hope of getting
Malaysian prisoners who have been convicted of drug trafficking and
sentenced to death in Singapore off the death penalty.
"Those who traffic drugs in Singapore harm and destroy the lives of
countless Singaporeans. These traffickers must be prepared to face the
consequences of their actions," MHA said.
In November 2019, convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Abd Helmi Ab Halim had his death sentence carried out after an unsuccessful petition to Singapore's President for clemency.
In May 2019, Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam said that
almost 30 per cent of drug traffickers caught in Singapore in 2018 were
Malaysians, and nearly 30 per cent of the heroin seized, by weight, was
brought in by Malaysians. He added that one in five traffickers who
brought in drugs above the threshold that brings the death penalty was
also a Malaysian.
On Wednesday, MHA also said that it has instructed the Pofma office
to issue corrections against the LFL as well as three other parties: Ms
Han's Facebook post that shared LFL's statement; The Online Citizen,
which has an article that contained the falsehoods; and Yahoo
Singapore's Facebook post which shared an article that contained the
falsehoods.
"They will be required to carry a correction notice alongside their
posts or articles stating that their posts or articles contain
falsehoods," MHA said.
Ms Han said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that she had sent
questions to the Singapore Prison Service about the claims made by LFL
but did not receive a response. She appended the correction notice to
her post on Wednesday afternoon, adding: “I originally shared this post
because the allegations that were made by Lawyers for Liberty,
concerning a process about which very little information is publicly
available, were extremely serious and disturbing.”
She also raised concerns over how this affects the ability of
journalists, activists and ordinary citizens to follow up on
allegations. “In the interests of dealing with ‘fake news’, I hope that
government and public agencies can be more responsive to queries from
journalists and/or civil society groups when they are seeking
information that can clarify matters,” she said.
Separately, The Online Citizen said it has filed an application to the minister to cancel the Correction Direction it received.
Meanwhile, Lawyers for Liberty said that it will not comply with the
correction notice and demanded that the notice be “unconditionally
withdrawn with immediate effect”.
The group says it stands by its original statement, which is based on
evidence from “former and current Singapore prison officers... with
impeccable service records”. It added that it is “outrageous and
unacceptable” for Singapore to issue such a notice to a Malaysian
organisation. - Straits Times, 22/1/2020
Singapore denies Malaysian legal group’s ‘preposterous’ claim of brutal hangings in Changi Prison
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — Malaysia’s rights group Lawyers for Liberty’s
(LFL) recent allegations of Singapore officials using unlawful methods
to carry out executions on prisoners is “untrue”, Singapore’s Home
Affairs Ministry (MHA) said today.
The Singapore MHA said LFL’s January 16 statement had “untrue,
baseless and preposterous allegations about the use of unlawful methods
in judicial executions conducted in Changi Prison”.
The MHA also said LFL’s claims that prison officers
were given “special training to carry out the brutal execution method”
and allegations of the Singapore government’s approval of such unlawful
methods and alleged cover-up measures are all “entirely unfounded”.
It said “no effort is spared to ensure that all judicial executions
in Singapore are carried out in strict compliance with the law”.
“All judicial executions are conducted in the presence of the Superintendent of the Prison and a medical doctor, among others.
“The law also requires a Coroner (who is a Judicial Officer of the
State Courts) to conduct an inquiry within 24 hours of the execution to
satisfy himself that the execution was carried out duly and properly,”
the Singapore MHA said in a statement on its official website.
“For the record, the rope used for judicial executions has never
broken before, and prison officers certainly do not receive any “special
training to carry out the brutal execution method” as alleged. Any acts
such as those described in the LFL statement would have been thoroughly
investigated and dealt with,” it added.
The ministry claimed LFL had been publishing “sensational and untrue
stories” to seek attention in the hopes of getting Malaysian prisoners —
who have been convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in
Singapore — off the death penalty.
The Singapore ministry said drug traffickers in Singapore must be
prepared to face the consequences as they “harm and destroy the lives of
countless Singaporeans”.
It added that its minister has instructed Singapore’s Protection from
Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act Office to issue a Correction
Direction for several Singapore-based entities to publish a correction
notice on their content which had featured LFL’s claims.
These include Kirsten Han’s Facebook post which had shared LFL’s statement, online portal The Online Citizen’s post, Yahoo Singapore’s Facebook post which shared an article by Yahoo Malaysia that featured the claims, the ministry said.
The ministry said that they will have to carry a correction notice
along their posts or articles to state that these “contain falsehoods”. - Malay Mail, 22/1/2020
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