Source: The ASEAN Post (30 May 2022)
https://theaseanpost.com/environment/2022/may/30/how-singapore-execution-set-wave-protests
The only post on Tan Mei Qian's Instagram profile is a picture of her and two friends delivering a letter to Singapore's President.
The letter contained a request to spare the life of Datchinamurthy Kataiah, a 36-year-old man who has been languishing on death row for the past seven years.
His crime – trafficking 44 grams of heroin, around three tablespoons worth, into Singapore.
"The media is heavily censored. So, there is little opportunity for us to raise our opinions here," Ms Tan said.
But that changed last month when another man, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingham, was executed for smuggling drugs into Singapore from Malaysia.
Birth Of A Movement
His hanging sparked a debate as young, aware and globally conscious Singaporeans began speaking up, mostly on social media – an unusual occurrence in politically passive Singapore.
In the days before Nagaenthran's execution, around 400 people gathered at Hong Lim park – the sole place in Singapore where protests are largely allowed without prior police approval.
In the past, rallies against the death penalty that were held there had attracted crowds of less than 50.
But this, a demonstration to halt the execution, was a watershed moment, activists say.
"Nagaenthran's case galvanised many in Singapore and made everyone realise how unforgiving and brutal our punishment system is," Jolovan Wham, the protest organiser, said. Nagaenthran was handed the death sentence for strapping 43 grams of heroin to his thigh.
In the months leading up to his hanging, his lawyers and family filed appeals and clemency requests asking for his death sentence to be commuted on the grounds that he was intellectually disabled.
One assessment found him to have an IQ of 69, a level internationally recognised as a learning disability.
But the courts rejected the claim and found that he knew what he was doing at the time of the offence.
There was hope that the pandemic, which led to a two year pause in executions, would alter Nagaenthran's fate.
But on 27 April, he was hanged at dawn.
Widespread Support
Most Singaporeans support the use of the death penalty but Nagaenthran's case has ignited debate over capital punishment. Singapore's government says its strict drug laws, including the death penalty, are an effective deterrent against crime, making it one of the safest places in Asia.
Just over a month before Nagaenthran's execution, Singapore's Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam told parliament that the majority of residents still support the death penalty and consider it appropriate punishment for drug trafficking. He was referring to preliminary findings from a 2021 survey.
But he did concede that young Singaporeans' support for capital punishment for drug traffickers was lower than the national average.
The responses to Ms Tan's post reflect these findings: "lol go study lah and I hope you never ever get to experience the destruction drugs cause to both the addicts and their loved ones," one comment reads.
Another says, "Please la girl don't fall prey to this nonsense... propaganda. You have no idea what a drug-run state looks like".
But Ms Tan is hopeful.
"I think we are going in a good direction because there is a lot more conversation about it."
More Executions To Come
The increased awareness has been a crutch for the families of those on death row. Datchina's family feels stronger and more resolute about his case because of what they saw at Hong Lim Park, said Kirsten Han, who has been campaigning against the death penalty for more than a decade.
"That is very distinct from other cases that I've worked on. Singaporeans are trying to find action to take themselves," she added.
Nagaenthran's case prompted criticism from the United Nations (UN), an European Union (EU) representative and global figures like billionaire Richard Branson. International rights groups called it a "tragic miscarriage of justice".
"For the first time I see a group of people are voicing out against the death penalty. Social media is full of Nagaenthran's case across so many industries – business, actors, ministers," said Angelia Pranthaman whose 31-year-old brother Pannir Selvam Pranthaman is also on death row, awaiting an execution date.
Activists, who have been trawling through court judgements and speaking to families, estimate that there are more than 60 people currently on death row in Singapore. Prisoners – and their families –have been appealing their cases in Singapore's courts, often representing themselves because lawyers are unwilling to take on late-stage cases.
'Broken System'
As efforts continue to save those who have received execution notices, some are questioning the punishment itself.
Amnesty International says out of the 10 death sentences handed out in Singapore during the pandemic – one sentence was handed out on Zoom – eight were for drug offences.
Singapore is also one of the few countries in the world that have mandatory death sentences for drug crimes – those caught carrying more than 15g of heroin are subject to the death penalty.
UN experts have said the death sentence is disproportionate for the number of drugs in question. Many also say those convicted are victims of a larger problem. "Our system is such that we impose the harshest penalty on the mules. But unfortunately, the drug lords behind the mules are still doing their business in other countries," criminal lawyer Sunil Sudheesan said.
Calls For Abolition
Experts say there is a global shift towards abolishing the death penalty, and that Singapore is an outlier among developed nations.
That said, Asia is home to the top executioner in the world.
China is believed to execute thousands of people every year, but official data is not publicly available.
Indonesia continues to use the death penalty for drug trafficking but hasn't carried out an execution since 2016.
Singapore's neighbour Malaysia has a moratorium on executions and has amended its laws, but Human Rights Watch says judges continue to hand out death sentences, rather than life imprisonment, in the majority of cases.
Other countries in Southeast Asia – the Philippines, Myanmar and Thailand – no longer have capital punishment.
"Singapore's international reputation has already deteriorated significantly with the execution of Nagaenthran," said the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network in a statement after his death.
Despite renewed calls from across the world for Singapore to reconsider capital punishment and existing death sentences, abolition or even a moratorium on executions seems unlikely in the near future.
"It won't happen too soon, but I have been encouraged by the number of young people who are taking action," Mr Wham said.
"I'm optimistic."
Showing posts with label mental illness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mental illness. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
Sunday, 8 May 2022
Death penalty: Singapore’s growing abolition movement
Source: The Interpreter (4 May 2022)
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/death-penalty-singapore-s-growing-abolition-movement
The sun baked the concrete and tarmac as mourners walked behind a hearse carrying Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, wailing and crying out for the life that had been lost. Over 200 people attended his funeral, sending him off on the final leg of a horrific journey that had begun 13 years ago, when Nagaenthran had been arrested in Singapore and eventually charged with trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin.
Nagaenthran’s story triggered an outpouring of support and concern in the final six months of his life. Although the Singapore government has repeatedly insisted that he was not intellectually disabled – even going as far as to issue a statement to that effect on the day he was hanged in prison – it was not a matter of contention that he’d had an IQ of 69, far below the average, and that he had “borderline intellectual functioning” as well as other cognitive impairments. As far as international standards were concerned, Nagaenthran was a person with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities. When his family first received an execution notice in October 2021, informing them that he would be put to death on 10 November, people expressed shock at how cold the letter was, informing his mother in bureaucratic language about the imminent hanging of her son.
Unlike most other death row prisoners in Singapore, Nagaenthran’s case attracted the attention of the international press. People followed its twist and turns, through desperate late-stage court applications to the surreal stay of execution that came after he tested positive for Covid-19, making him somehow too sick to kill. An online petition urging the President of Singapore to grant him clemency garnered over 100,000 signatures. Solidarity letters were signed by people from multiple sectors, from healthcare workers to professionals within the legal industry. When the Singapore government ignored our pleas and executed him anyway on 27 April, many Singaporeans showed up at the wake the mourn him, bringing flowers and cards and handwritten messages of support for his family.
The breadth of support for Nagaenthran that materialised within a very short period was not something I’d seen before as an abolitionist in Singapore. In 2010, the family of Yong Vui Kong – who has since been re-sentenced to life imprisonment – had also gathered over 100,000 petition signatures, but it had taken them weeks of canvassing in the streets of Singapore and Malaysia to reach that number.
Nagaenthran’s psychosocial disabilities made his case a particularly sympathetic one. Even people who were not necessarily against capital punishment agreed that a vulnerable person like him should have been spared. But that alone cannot account for the increase in support for abolition, and the shift in discourse on the death penalty in the country that is underway.
On 3 April, a protest against the death penalty drew a crowd of about 400; three weeks later a vigil for Nagaenthran and another death row prisoner, Datchinamurthy a/l Kataiah (originally scheduled for execution on 29 April, but who later received a stay of execution) had a similarly strong turn-out. Unlike the campaigns on which I’d worked on a decade ago, which had tended to focus on the specifics of a particular case, the participants of these protests demanded not just pity and mercy for a specific person, but complete abolition of the capital punishment regime. Placards and chants zeroed in on systemic oppression and exploitation, pointing to the intersections of race, class and structural inequality. People did not hesitate to describe death sentences as murder and state violence, and to call for an end to the killing.
Singaporeans, usually assumed to be protest-averse and politically passive, are also coming forward to act on their convictions. Ahead of executions, multiple people have personally delivered letters to the presidential palace, seeking pardons for death row prisoners. The night before Nagaenthran’s execution, a small group of Singaporeans gathered outside Changi Prison despite a heavy police presence, writing messages and saying prayers for a man they had never met, but whose humanity they recognised and cared for.
While it is true that most Singaporeans are still in favour of the death penalty, a comprehensive public opinion survey conducted by academics has shown that this support isn’t as overwhelming and unshakeable as the government often portrays it to be. Abolitionist sentiments and conversations have emerged on social media platforms despite being largely excluded from local mainstream media coverage. The government still insists that the death penalty for drugs is an effective deterrence, imposing their own interpretations of public opinion surveys to push that claim. But a growing number of Singaporeans are now questioning and challenging, even directly rejecting, this dominant narrative.
The impact of such expressions of support cannot be understated. While still in the minority in terms of overall public sentiment in the country, the fact that people are showing up and taking action not only grows the movement, but also has a deep and lasting impact on the loved ones of those on death row. Family members often feel silenced, intimidated and humiliated by the stigma attached to having a relative on death row – public demonstrations of solidarity show them that they are not alone in their fight. In recent years, my conversations with families have evolved. Where they used to focus only on the specifics of their loved one’s case, family members now express much more concern for every other case on death row, and repeatedly state the need for complete abolition of the death penalty.
Nagaenthran’s death caused much pain and suffering, particularly for his family, but also for many Singaporeans who had desperately wished for him to be spared. Many people will need time to process their shock, disappointment, anger and grief, but the anti-death penalty movement presses on. We have no other choice. Although Datchinamurthy, who lived in the cell next to Nagaenthran’s, managed to win himself a stay of execution, such stays are only temporary, and multiple prisoners are at risk of imminent execution. While we did not succeed in keeping Nagaenthran alive, the support his story garnered for the abolitionist movement now represents hope for many others.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/death-penalty-singapore-s-growing-abolition-movement
The sun baked the concrete and tarmac as mourners walked behind a hearse carrying Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, wailing and crying out for the life that had been lost. Over 200 people attended his funeral, sending him off on the final leg of a horrific journey that had begun 13 years ago, when Nagaenthran had been arrested in Singapore and eventually charged with trafficking 42.72 grams of heroin.
Nagaenthran’s story triggered an outpouring of support and concern in the final six months of his life. Although the Singapore government has repeatedly insisted that he was not intellectually disabled – even going as far as to issue a statement to that effect on the day he was hanged in prison – it was not a matter of contention that he’d had an IQ of 69, far below the average, and that he had “borderline intellectual functioning” as well as other cognitive impairments. As far as international standards were concerned, Nagaenthran was a person with intellectual/psychosocial disabilities. When his family first received an execution notice in October 2021, informing them that he would be put to death on 10 November, people expressed shock at how cold the letter was, informing his mother in bureaucratic language about the imminent hanging of her son.
Unlike most other death row prisoners in Singapore, Nagaenthran’s case attracted the attention of the international press. People followed its twist and turns, through desperate late-stage court applications to the surreal stay of execution that came after he tested positive for Covid-19, making him somehow too sick to kill. An online petition urging the President of Singapore to grant him clemency garnered over 100,000 signatures. Solidarity letters were signed by people from multiple sectors, from healthcare workers to professionals within the legal industry. When the Singapore government ignored our pleas and executed him anyway on 27 April, many Singaporeans showed up at the wake the mourn him, bringing flowers and cards and handwritten messages of support for his family.
The breadth of support for Nagaenthran that materialised within a very short period was not something I’d seen before as an abolitionist in Singapore. In 2010, the family of Yong Vui Kong – who has since been re-sentenced to life imprisonment – had also gathered over 100,000 petition signatures, but it had taken them weeks of canvassing in the streets of Singapore and Malaysia to reach that number.
Nagaenthran’s psychosocial disabilities made his case a particularly sympathetic one. Even people who were not necessarily against capital punishment agreed that a vulnerable person like him should have been spared. But that alone cannot account for the increase in support for abolition, and the shift in discourse on the death penalty in the country that is underway.
On 3 April, a protest against the death penalty drew a crowd of about 400; three weeks later a vigil for Nagaenthran and another death row prisoner, Datchinamurthy a/l Kataiah (originally scheduled for execution on 29 April, but who later received a stay of execution) had a similarly strong turn-out. Unlike the campaigns on which I’d worked on a decade ago, which had tended to focus on the specifics of a particular case, the participants of these protests demanded not just pity and mercy for a specific person, but complete abolition of the capital punishment regime. Placards and chants zeroed in on systemic oppression and exploitation, pointing to the intersections of race, class and structural inequality. People did not hesitate to describe death sentences as murder and state violence, and to call for an end to the killing.
Singaporeans, usually assumed to be protest-averse and politically passive, are also coming forward to act on their convictions. Ahead of executions, multiple people have personally delivered letters to the presidential palace, seeking pardons for death row prisoners. The night before Nagaenthran’s execution, a small group of Singaporeans gathered outside Changi Prison despite a heavy police presence, writing messages and saying prayers for a man they had never met, but whose humanity they recognised and cared for.
While it is true that most Singaporeans are still in favour of the death penalty, a comprehensive public opinion survey conducted by academics has shown that this support isn’t as overwhelming and unshakeable as the government often portrays it to be. Abolitionist sentiments and conversations have emerged on social media platforms despite being largely excluded from local mainstream media coverage. The government still insists that the death penalty for drugs is an effective deterrence, imposing their own interpretations of public opinion surveys to push that claim. But a growing number of Singaporeans are now questioning and challenging, even directly rejecting, this dominant narrative.
The impact of such expressions of support cannot be understated. While still in the minority in terms of overall public sentiment in the country, the fact that people are showing up and taking action not only grows the movement, but also has a deep and lasting impact on the loved ones of those on death row. Family members often feel silenced, intimidated and humiliated by the stigma attached to having a relative on death row – public demonstrations of solidarity show them that they are not alone in their fight. In recent years, my conversations with families have evolved. Where they used to focus only on the specifics of their loved one’s case, family members now express much more concern for every other case on death row, and repeatedly state the need for complete abolition of the death penalty.
Nagaenthran’s death caused much pain and suffering, particularly for his family, but also for many Singaporeans who had desperately wished for him to be spared. Many people will need time to process their shock, disappointment, anger and grief, but the anti-death penalty movement presses on. We have no other choice. Although Datchinamurthy, who lived in the cell next to Nagaenthran’s, managed to win himself a stay of execution, such stays are only temporary, and multiple prisoners are at risk of imminent execution. While we did not succeed in keeping Nagaenthran alive, the support his story garnered for the abolitionist movement now represents hope for many others.
Saturday, 30 April 2022
‘Not only is the prisoner killed, but his family is destroyed’
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (30 April 2022)
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/not-only-is-the-prisoner-killed-but-his-family-is-destroyed-20220429-p5ah3v.html
Singapore: Apart from the family members and friends of the prisoners he has represented, Julian McMahon knows about as well as any Australian about the grisly, heartbreaking reality of the death penalty.
The Melbourne barrister was the lawyer for Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who faced an Indonesian firing squad in 2015, and for Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen, who was put to death for drug trafficking by Singapore in 2005.
“The role of the lawyer in those circumstances is to provide steady guidance and not to be overwhelmed by the emotional horror of it all,” McMahon told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“That comes later. It’s deeply upsetting to participate in. By participating up close you see that not only is the prisoner being killed, but also his family is being destroyed. The ripple effect of an execution is to kill the prisoner, destroy the family and ultimately to harm all those involved in the process.”
The issue of capital punishment has naturally peaked in prominence in Australia over the years when Australians have been caught up in its crosshairs, most notably in those instances in Indonesia and Singapore, and in Malaysia, which executed Perth man Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, from Sydney, for heroin importation in 1986.
The body of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was to be cremated in his home town of Ipoh in Malaysia’s Perak state on Friday afternoon, two days after his execution inside Changi prison and more than a decade after he was arrested entering Singapore with 42.72 grams of heroin strapped to his thigh and given a mandatory death sentence.
He was the second inmate to face the gallows in Singapore in the last month. Three others have received execution notices this year – all for drug offences as well - as the city state begins carrying out the death penalty again after a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the case of a 34-year-old Malaysian man with “borderline intellectual functioning” being hanged by Singapore this week generated worldwide attention.
The ultimate penalty
The resumption of executions has thrust the spotlight back onto the hardline stance on narcotics of Singapore, which shares one of the world’s busiest land crossings with Malaysia and regards the death penalty as a core national policy, crucial to maintaining its status as one of the safest places on the planet.
The island nation is far from alone in Asia in handing out the ultimate penalty for drug trafficking.
The region is a global leader when it comes to capital punishment for drugs crimes. According to the latest report by Harm Reduction International, which assembles figures on the death penalty for drugs, there were 237 known drug-related death sentences handed down worldwide last year and more than 90 per cent of them were in south-east Asia.
Indonesia was the frontrunner with 89, followed by Vietnam with at least 87, Malaysia 15, Laos 14, Singapore 10 and Thailand two.
Yet while Singapore has resumed executions, none of its regional neighbours except Vietnam - where capital punishment is a state secret and numbers are unknown - have actually carried one out in recent years. In 2021, Indonesia went a fifth straight year without delivering one for any offence, Malaysia’s last execution was in 2017 and Thailand hasn’t put a prisoner to death for drugs since 2009, although it did execute a man by lethal injection in 2018 over a robbery resulting in death.
The war on drugs
It’s not to say that those tied up in the drugs game or linked to it have not paid the highest price at the hands of the state. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 but President Rodrigo Duterte took matters into his own hands after his election in 2016 in a so-called war on drugs that rights groups estimate has led to more than 20,000 drug-related killings by authorities and vigilante groups.
And in countries such as Indonesia, the lack of executions doesn’t equate to progress, said HRI’s human rights lead Ajeng Larasati, who is Indonesian.
“There is a still a huge appetite [by courts] to sentence people to death for drugs in Indonesia,” she said.
In Malaysia, judges are also still prescribing the sentence despite even though they have limited discretion to opt for a life sentence and whipping rather than the death penalty for drug trafficking, under an amendment to the law passed in 2017.
Last October Hairun Jalmani, a 55-year-old single mother of nine in Sabah, was sentenced to death after being found with 113 grams of methamphetamine.
There are at least small signs things might change. A parliamentary committee is expected to this year table a further amendment to the law in Malaysia, where convictions for murder, kidnapping and drug trafficking have had mandatory death sentences.
But Dobby Chew, the Malaysia-based executive coordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, warns the anticipated changes fall a long way short of abolition, as had briefly been foreshadowed by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad when won election again in 2018.
“From what we understand it’s only going to recommend that mandatory death sentences be replaced with full discretion for judges,” Chew said.
Across the Johor-Singapore Causeway, though, there is no sign anything will change.
In Singapore, drug trafficking, including for more than 15 grams of heroin, is among the offences that carries a mandatory death penalty and all but three of 60 prisoners on death row were there on narcotics offences, according to the Transformative Justice Collective, a Singaporean organisation seeking reform of the city-state’s justice system.
This week, the United Nations human rights office expressed alarm at “a rapid rise in the number of execution notices issues since the beginning of the year in Singapore”.
But Singapore authorities staunchly back the deployment of capital publishment, pointing to its deterrent effect and studies they say demonstrate support by its population.
The Herald and The Age requested an interview with Singapore Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on the use of the death penalty but was directed instead towards statements by the Central Narcotics Bureau and Attorney General’s Chambers defending the execution of Nagaenthran, saying he had been transporting enough heroin to “feed the addiction of 510 drug abusers for a week”.
In response to previous questions, though, the home affairs ministry said: “The death penalty is an important component of Singapore’s criminal justice system. It is applied only after due process of law and with judicial safeguards. We use capital punishment in the most limited of circumstances, to deter the most serious crimes in Singapore’s context, such as murder and drug trafficking, and this has proven effective. In so doing, the larger interest of ensuring our people’s fundamental human right to safety and security, is served.”
In parliament here last month, Shanmugum said the majority of Singaporeans believed the death penalty served as an effective deterrent against serious crimes, reading from preliminary findings of a government study.
The home affairs ministry has said there is evidence that drug traffickers had reduced the amount of drugs they transported because they knew about the death penalty and the thresholds for different drugs, pointing to reductions in the trafficking of opium and cannabis after the introduction of the mandatory death penalty in 1990 and another government study showing “severe legal consequences had limited [offenders’] trafficking behaviour”.
The deterrence argument is one that is furiously contested including by rights groups. “Based on research that has been carried out, there is no reliable evidence of the deterrent effects of the death penalty. It’s not just for drugs, it’s also for other crimes punishable by death,” Larasati said.
The way McMahon sees it, it is also ineffective on another front. It is almost never the drug kingpins themselves who are ensnared.
“The so-called zero tolerance policy only works against the easy target – the intellectually disabled or the drug addicted or the generally incompetent low-level drug mule,” he said.
“That in itself should give pause to reflect on what’s really happening because those people are constantly replaceable by an endless line of foolish or vulnerable young offenders.”
Having experienced Singapore’s system at close quarters, he added: “It is a shocking fact and aberration for a sophisticated state to maintain a mandatory death penalty, particularly for relatively minor drug offences.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/not-only-is-the-prisoner-killed-but-his-family-is-destroyed-20220429-p5ah3v.html
Singapore: Apart from the family members and friends of the prisoners he has represented, Julian McMahon knows about as well as any Australian about the grisly, heartbreaking reality of the death penalty.
The Melbourne barrister was the lawyer for Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who faced an Indonesian firing squad in 2015, and for Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen, who was put to death for drug trafficking by Singapore in 2005.
“The role of the lawyer in those circumstances is to provide steady guidance and not to be overwhelmed by the emotional horror of it all,” McMahon told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“That comes later. It’s deeply upsetting to participate in. By participating up close you see that not only is the prisoner being killed, but also his family is being destroyed. The ripple effect of an execution is to kill the prisoner, destroy the family and ultimately to harm all those involved in the process.”
The issue of capital punishment has naturally peaked in prominence in Australia over the years when Australians have been caught up in its crosshairs, most notably in those instances in Indonesia and Singapore, and in Malaysia, which executed Perth man Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers, from Sydney, for heroin importation in 1986.
The body of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was to be cremated in his home town of Ipoh in Malaysia’s Perak state on Friday afternoon, two days after his execution inside Changi prison and more than a decade after he was arrested entering Singapore with 42.72 grams of heroin strapped to his thigh and given a mandatory death sentence.
He was the second inmate to face the gallows in Singapore in the last month. Three others have received execution notices this year – all for drug offences as well - as the city state begins carrying out the death penalty again after a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the case of a 34-year-old Malaysian man with “borderline intellectual functioning” being hanged by Singapore this week generated worldwide attention.
The ultimate penalty
The resumption of executions has thrust the spotlight back onto the hardline stance on narcotics of Singapore, which shares one of the world’s busiest land crossings with Malaysia and regards the death penalty as a core national policy, crucial to maintaining its status as one of the safest places on the planet.
The island nation is far from alone in Asia in handing out the ultimate penalty for drug trafficking.
The region is a global leader when it comes to capital punishment for drugs crimes. According to the latest report by Harm Reduction International, which assembles figures on the death penalty for drugs, there were 237 known drug-related death sentences handed down worldwide last year and more than 90 per cent of them were in south-east Asia.
Indonesia was the frontrunner with 89, followed by Vietnam with at least 87, Malaysia 15, Laos 14, Singapore 10 and Thailand two.
Yet while Singapore has resumed executions, none of its regional neighbours except Vietnam - where capital punishment is a state secret and numbers are unknown - have actually carried one out in recent years. In 2021, Indonesia went a fifth straight year without delivering one for any offence, Malaysia’s last execution was in 2017 and Thailand hasn’t put a prisoner to death for drugs since 2009, although it did execute a man by lethal injection in 2018 over a robbery resulting in death.
The war on drugs
It’s not to say that those tied up in the drugs game or linked to it have not paid the highest price at the hands of the state. The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006 but President Rodrigo Duterte took matters into his own hands after his election in 2016 in a so-called war on drugs that rights groups estimate has led to more than 20,000 drug-related killings by authorities and vigilante groups.
And in countries such as Indonesia, the lack of executions doesn’t equate to progress, said HRI’s human rights lead Ajeng Larasati, who is Indonesian.
“There is a still a huge appetite [by courts] to sentence people to death for drugs in Indonesia,” she said.
In Malaysia, judges are also still prescribing the sentence despite even though they have limited discretion to opt for a life sentence and whipping rather than the death penalty for drug trafficking, under an amendment to the law passed in 2017.
Last October Hairun Jalmani, a 55-year-old single mother of nine in Sabah, was sentenced to death after being found with 113 grams of methamphetamine.
There are at least small signs things might change. A parliamentary committee is expected to this year table a further amendment to the law in Malaysia, where convictions for murder, kidnapping and drug trafficking have had mandatory death sentences.
But Dobby Chew, the Malaysia-based executive coordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, warns the anticipated changes fall a long way short of abolition, as had briefly been foreshadowed by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad when won election again in 2018.
“From what we understand it’s only going to recommend that mandatory death sentences be replaced with full discretion for judges,” Chew said.
Across the Johor-Singapore Causeway, though, there is no sign anything will change.
In Singapore, drug trafficking, including for more than 15 grams of heroin, is among the offences that carries a mandatory death penalty and all but three of 60 prisoners on death row were there on narcotics offences, according to the Transformative Justice Collective, a Singaporean organisation seeking reform of the city-state’s justice system.
This week, the United Nations human rights office expressed alarm at “a rapid rise in the number of execution notices issues since the beginning of the year in Singapore”.
But Singapore authorities staunchly back the deployment of capital publishment, pointing to its deterrent effect and studies they say demonstrate support by its population.
The Herald and The Age requested an interview with Singapore Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam on the use of the death penalty but was directed instead towards statements by the Central Narcotics Bureau and Attorney General’s Chambers defending the execution of Nagaenthran, saying he had been transporting enough heroin to “feed the addiction of 510 drug abusers for a week”.
In response to previous questions, though, the home affairs ministry said: “The death penalty is an important component of Singapore’s criminal justice system. It is applied only after due process of law and with judicial safeguards. We use capital punishment in the most limited of circumstances, to deter the most serious crimes in Singapore’s context, such as murder and drug trafficking, and this has proven effective. In so doing, the larger interest of ensuring our people’s fundamental human right to safety and security, is served.”
In parliament here last month, Shanmugum said the majority of Singaporeans believed the death penalty served as an effective deterrent against serious crimes, reading from preliminary findings of a government study.
The home affairs ministry has said there is evidence that drug traffickers had reduced the amount of drugs they transported because they knew about the death penalty and the thresholds for different drugs, pointing to reductions in the trafficking of opium and cannabis after the introduction of the mandatory death penalty in 1990 and another government study showing “severe legal consequences had limited [offenders’] trafficking behaviour”.
The deterrence argument is one that is furiously contested including by rights groups. “Based on research that has been carried out, there is no reliable evidence of the deterrent effects of the death penalty. It’s not just for drugs, it’s also for other crimes punishable by death,” Larasati said.
The way McMahon sees it, it is also ineffective on another front. It is almost never the drug kingpins themselves who are ensnared.
“The so-called zero tolerance policy only works against the easy target – the intellectually disabled or the drug addicted or the generally incompetent low-level drug mule,” he said.
“That in itself should give pause to reflect on what’s really happening because those people are constantly replaceable by an endless line of foolish or vulnerable young offenders.”
Having experienced Singapore’s system at close quarters, he added: “It is a shocking fact and aberration for a sophisticated state to maintain a mandatory death penalty, particularly for relatively minor drug offences.”
Tuesday, 15 March 2022
The Singapore lawyer who defends those facing the gallows
Source: Al Jazeera (7 March 2022)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/7/death-penalty-the-singapore-lawyer
Singapore is known for being tough on crime, with some of the harshest punishments in the world, including a mandatory death sentence for certain offences, including drug-related crimes.
One lawyer, M Ravi, has been taking on the state in high-profile cases for decades.
Ravi has been diagnosed as bipolar and is currently suspended from practising law on mental health grounds, but he has been heavily involved in the case of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with a learning disability found guilty of drug offences and sentenced to death.
A last-minute appeal that attracted worldwide attention gave Nagaenthran a reprieve, and he contracted COVID-19 in November of last year, further delaying the process.
Singapore’s Court of Appeal heard his case on March 1, and has reserved judgement until an undisclosed date.
Ravi spoke to Al Jazeera about why he takes on such challenging cases. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Al Jazeera: You are one of the few lawyers involved in the defence of people facing the death penalty. Why do you take on such cases?
M Ravi: My original focus was mainly commercial and corporate cases, looking at intellectual property, technology, that kind of stuff.
In 2003, when a Malaysian boy Vignes Mourthi was facing the death penalty [for smuggling 27 grams of heroin into the country], I mounted a last-minute constitutional challenge at the request of the former opposition leader in Singapore, Mr J B Jeyaretnam. He’s almost like a Nelson Mandela of Singapore.
On the eve of the execution, I asked the then Chief Justice if we could reopen this case. He said that the case had run its course and there was little I could do.
I then asked [that] if I could show that he was innocent, would Mourthi still be hanged? He said yes. That was a horrifying statement. I saw the way the poor and the oppressed were being treated. It brought me to fight against the death penalty in Singapore.
Al Jazeera: The Law Society of Singapore has suspended you from practising law on psychiatric grounds following your diagnosis of bipolar disorder. What has happened?
M Ravi: As I was preparing to argue Nagaenthran’s appeal, my doctor said suddenly that I am unwell. And that’s it, the Law Society said I have to stop as the doctor found that I am unwell.
I’m still doing work, preparing bundles of papers. If I don’t do that, Nagaenthran will be in the gallows.
The psychiatrists that have spoken to me from around the world, and other people I have spoken to, said that I don’t need treatment and just need rest.
Of course I am frustrated. I was originally told by my doctor that I can still argue Nagaenthran’s case and my MC [medical note] should end on January 13. Then he extended it to March 13. And the court is not going to wait, the Attorney General is pressing that Nagaenthran’s case should go ahead and be rushed through.
Al Jazeera: What other challenges do you face when taking on these difficult cases, going up against the Singapore state?
M Ravi: The Law Society and the Attorney General have applied to the Court of Appeal to suspend me from practice – or even strike me off.
That’s because of a case in 2020, the case of Gobi Avedian. He was supposed to be executed, but I managed to stop it.
The authorities are extremely frustrated because I frustrated their scheme of the death penalty. The Court of Appeal acknowledged that this is the first miscarriage of justice case in Singapore.
In this case, the Court of Appeal said we have made a mistake. The question I asked the Attorney General is ‘What if I had not come to practice law in this case?’ Gobi would have been gone. I criticised the entire administration of the death penalty.
Then there is the media. They constantly say that I am mad. There is psychological harassment about my psychiatric condition.
Al Jazeera: Will Singapore ever get rid of the death penalty?
M Ravi: It will. Just look at the case of Yong Vui Kong. He was only 19 when he was caught [trafficking heroin into Singapore in 2007].
This boy was supposed to be executed and, on the eve of the execution, I filed to stop it.
It took three, four years, but finally the law was amended [Yong was spared]. The law now gives judges some discretion.
So there is a precursor to tell us that things can change. Singapore is ripe to repeal the death penalty, most countries in the Southeast Asia region don’t practise it. Philippines is a no, Myanmar no, Thailand no, Indonesia yes but still slow.
And now we have Richard Branson taking them on and telling other rich people about it.
I think they have no choice but to get rid of it.
Al Jazeera: How confident are you and your team of Nagaenthran’s appeal?
M Ravi: It’s a humungous amount of work. There are five Deputy Public Prosecutors, they are all at the top. Singapore finds a lot of resources to kill people.
I think I will be able to win. Five judges are [hearing] the case. If it’s a shut case and not serious and open, they wouldn’t even come.
Secondly, psychiatric prison experts from the UK and Australia have given their expert opinion to say that the methods used by the Institute of Mental Health in Singapore are backwards. The tests are all wrong. The manner in which they are administered are very childish.
Singapore is known for being tough on crime, with some of the harshest punishments in the world, including a mandatory death sentence for certain offences, including drug-related crimes.
One lawyer, M Ravi, has been taking on the state in high-profile cases for decades.
Ravi has been diagnosed as bipolar and is currently suspended from practising law on mental health grounds, but he has been heavily involved in the case of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian man with a learning disability found guilty of drug offences and sentenced to death.
A last-minute appeal that attracted worldwide attention gave Nagaenthran a reprieve, and he contracted COVID-19 in November of last year, further delaying the process.
Singapore’s Court of Appeal heard his case on March 1, and has reserved judgement until an undisclosed date.
Ravi spoke to Al Jazeera about why he takes on such challenging cases. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Al Jazeera: You are one of the few lawyers involved in the defence of people facing the death penalty. Why do you take on such cases?
M Ravi: My original focus was mainly commercial and corporate cases, looking at intellectual property, technology, that kind of stuff.
In 2003, when a Malaysian boy Vignes Mourthi was facing the death penalty [for smuggling 27 grams of heroin into the country], I mounted a last-minute constitutional challenge at the request of the former opposition leader in Singapore, Mr J B Jeyaretnam. He’s almost like a Nelson Mandela of Singapore.
On the eve of the execution, I asked the then Chief Justice if we could reopen this case. He said that the case had run its course and there was little I could do.
I then asked [that] if I could show that he was innocent, would Mourthi still be hanged? He said yes. That was a horrifying statement. I saw the way the poor and the oppressed were being treated. It brought me to fight against the death penalty in Singapore.
Al Jazeera: The Law Society of Singapore has suspended you from practising law on psychiatric grounds following your diagnosis of bipolar disorder. What has happened?
M Ravi: As I was preparing to argue Nagaenthran’s appeal, my doctor said suddenly that I am unwell. And that’s it, the Law Society said I have to stop as the doctor found that I am unwell.
I’m still doing work, preparing bundles of papers. If I don’t do that, Nagaenthran will be in the gallows.
The psychiatrists that have spoken to me from around the world, and other people I have spoken to, said that I don’t need treatment and just need rest.
Of course I am frustrated. I was originally told by my doctor that I can still argue Nagaenthran’s case and my MC [medical note] should end on January 13. Then he extended it to March 13. And the court is not going to wait, the Attorney General is pressing that Nagaenthran’s case should go ahead and be rushed through.
Al Jazeera: What other challenges do you face when taking on these difficult cases, going up against the Singapore state?
M Ravi: The Law Society and the Attorney General have applied to the Court of Appeal to suspend me from practice – or even strike me off.
That’s because of a case in 2020, the case of Gobi Avedian. He was supposed to be executed, but I managed to stop it.
The authorities are extremely frustrated because I frustrated their scheme of the death penalty. The Court of Appeal acknowledged that this is the first miscarriage of justice case in Singapore.
In this case, the Court of Appeal said we have made a mistake. The question I asked the Attorney General is ‘What if I had not come to practice law in this case?’ Gobi would have been gone. I criticised the entire administration of the death penalty.
Then there is the media. They constantly say that I am mad. There is psychological harassment about my psychiatric condition.
Al Jazeera: Will Singapore ever get rid of the death penalty?
M Ravi: It will. Just look at the case of Yong Vui Kong. He was only 19 when he was caught [trafficking heroin into Singapore in 2007].
This boy was supposed to be executed and, on the eve of the execution, I filed to stop it.
It took three, four years, but finally the law was amended [Yong was spared]. The law now gives judges some discretion.
So there is a precursor to tell us that things can change. Singapore is ripe to repeal the death penalty, most countries in the Southeast Asia region don’t practise it. Philippines is a no, Myanmar no, Thailand no, Indonesia yes but still slow.
And now we have Richard Branson taking them on and telling other rich people about it.
I think they have no choice but to get rid of it.
Al Jazeera: How confident are you and your team of Nagaenthran’s appeal?
M Ravi: It’s a humungous amount of work. There are five Deputy Public Prosecutors, they are all at the top. Singapore finds a lot of resources to kill people.
I think I will be able to win. Five judges are [hearing] the case. If it’s a shut case and not serious and open, they wouldn’t even come.
Secondly, psychiatric prison experts from the UK and Australia have given their expert opinion to say that the methods used by the Institute of Mental Health in Singapore are backwards. The tests are all wrong. The manner in which they are administered are very childish.
Friday, 24 December 2021
Nagaenthran case puts Singapore’s death penalty in spotlight
Source: Al Jazeera (12 November 2021)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/12/nagaenthran-case-puts-singapore-death-penalty-in-spotlight
Singapore – Nagaenthran Dharmalingam remains confined to a cell in Singapore’s Changi Prison, living on death row as he has been over the past 11 years.
This week was set to be his last, but an eleventh hour stay of execution and the discovery of a positive COVID-19 test, kept him alive — for now.
His story has caused ripples in the tiny Southeast Asian city-state, intensifying the debate around the death penalty in a country famed for its no-nonsense approach to crime.
In 2009, aged 21, Nagaenthran was caught trying to enter Singapore with just under 43 grams of diamorphine (heroin) strapped to his thigh. A year later, he was sentenced to death.
Nagaenthran claimed he was coerced into carrying drugs, although he later said that he acted as a mule because he needed the money.
His legal team has argued that his low IQ of 69 indicates an intellectual disability, affecting his ability to make informed decisions.
The case has provoked widespread international condemnation from human rights groups to representatives from the European Union and British entrepreneur Richard Branson.
There was even a rare intervention from the Malaysian Prime Minister. Ismail Sabri Yaakob penned a letter to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, seeking leniency, according to Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama.
The plight of Nagaenthran has also generated rare criticism within the city-state itself. A petition started by a Singaporean to halt the execution has received more than 80,000 signatures.
Singapore has previously seen support for the death penalty. A 2019 survey by the Institute of Policy Studies of 2,000 residents found 70 percent agreed that execution was more of a deterrent against serious crime than a life sentence.
But this case has reignited the debate about Singapore’s death penalty.
“There are a few factors of Nagen’s case that catch people’s attention and garner sympathy,” said local activist Kirsten Han.
“The fact that he has an IQ of only 69 and other cognitive impairments, and yet has still been sentenced to death with his execution scheduled, is really alarming.”
‘Criminal mind’
Intricate details of Nagaenthran’s case have been shared and scrutinised online. In Singapore, outrage against death penalty cases is usually confined to fringe activist groups, but this story has gone mainstream.
High profile social media accounts shared photographs of the letter sent to Nagaenthran’s family in Malaysia by the Singapore Prison Service.
It briefly outlined when their son would be executed, before providing a stream of information about the logistics they need to sort in order to enter Singapore during the pandemic including quarantine procedures.
“I’ve met people who expressed shock by how cold the notice of execution to the family was. But that’s actually the standard way that such notices are delivered to families.
“The only difference with Nagen’s family is that the letter was longer because they had to include COVID regulations,” Han explained.
Singapore has a zero-tolerance attitude towards drugs, and anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of diamorphine may face the death penalty.
There was, however, a slight relaxation of the rules in 2012. The Misuse of Drugs Act was amended, giving judges the opportunity to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment with caning in specific cases.
One of these technicalities would allow for an offender to avoid execution if they are mentally disabled. It was on this point that Nagaenthran’s appeal was launched in 2015 and failed.
Stephanie McLennan, Senior Asia Initiatives Manager at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Nagaenthran received no “disability-specific accommodations” during his investigation and trial, a violation of international law.
But the defence of an intellectual disability has been disputed by the Singapore courts.
In a statement, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said: “He knew it was unlawful for him to be transporting the drugs, and he concealed the drugs to avoid it being found.
“Despite knowing the unlawfulness of his acts, he undertook the criminal endeavour so that he could pay off some part of a monetary debt. The Court of Appeal found that this was the working of a criminal mind.”
Little impact on criminal syndicates
If Nagaenthran is hanged, he will become the first person to be executed in Singapore since 2019.
Over the last eight years, 35 people have been killed by the state, according to Singapore government data. Twenty eight of them had been convicted of drug offences.
Singapore argues that its tough justice system makes it one of the safest places in the world.
Authorities say that drug traffickers are aware of the rules and given the risks faced, the quantity of illegal substances smuggled into the country is reduced.
Data from the MHA points to a 66 percent reduction in the average net weight of opium trafficked in the four-year period after the mandatory death penalty was introduced in 1990, for trafficking more than 1,200 grams of opium.
But the risk of death has not eliminated the illegal drug trade.
Last month, a Singaporean man failed in his appeal against a death sentence after he was caught smuggling one kilo (2.2 pounds) of cannabis into his homeland in 2018. And last year, another man was sentenced to death over Zoom for his role in a drug deal back in 2011.
The Singapore authorities may market the ultimate punishment as the ultimate deterrent, but anti-death penalty campaigners see things differently.
They argue that the death penalty punishes small players in a much larger game.
“Drug trafficking is still as prevalent in the region and Singapore is no different. Most of the executions witnessed over the years has largely been mules or trafficking in relatively minor quantities,” Dobby Chew, Executive Co-ordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network told Al Jazeera.
“The syndicates behind the drug trade are still very much present and in operation even with multiple executions over the years.”
Campaigners are keen for Nagaenthran’s case to stay at the top of the news agenda, possibly acting as a catalyst for more support to abolish executions.
“First they tried to execute someone who is intellectually disabled. Now they are granting him some form of mercy and treating him for COVID-19,” said Chew.
“But for all we know, once he is cured, they’ll proceed with the execution. I think that the absurdity of the turn of events would force people to rethink what they know of the death penalty.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/12/nagaenthran-case-puts-singapore-death-penalty-in-spotlight
Singapore – Nagaenthran Dharmalingam remains confined to a cell in Singapore’s Changi Prison, living on death row as he has been over the past 11 years.
This week was set to be his last, but an eleventh hour stay of execution and the discovery of a positive COVID-19 test, kept him alive — for now.
His story has caused ripples in the tiny Southeast Asian city-state, intensifying the debate around the death penalty in a country famed for its no-nonsense approach to crime.
In 2009, aged 21, Nagaenthran was caught trying to enter Singapore with just under 43 grams of diamorphine (heroin) strapped to his thigh. A year later, he was sentenced to death.
Nagaenthran claimed he was coerced into carrying drugs, although he later said that he acted as a mule because he needed the money.
His legal team has argued that his low IQ of 69 indicates an intellectual disability, affecting his ability to make informed decisions.
The case has provoked widespread international condemnation from human rights groups to representatives from the European Union and British entrepreneur Richard Branson.
There was even a rare intervention from the Malaysian Prime Minister. Ismail Sabri Yaakob penned a letter to his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong, seeking leniency, according to Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama.
The plight of Nagaenthran has also generated rare criticism within the city-state itself. A petition started by a Singaporean to halt the execution has received more than 80,000 signatures.
Singapore has previously seen support for the death penalty. A 2019 survey by the Institute of Policy Studies of 2,000 residents found 70 percent agreed that execution was more of a deterrent against serious crime than a life sentence.
But this case has reignited the debate about Singapore’s death penalty.
“There are a few factors of Nagen’s case that catch people’s attention and garner sympathy,” said local activist Kirsten Han.
“The fact that he has an IQ of only 69 and other cognitive impairments, and yet has still been sentenced to death with his execution scheduled, is really alarming.”
‘Criminal mind’
Intricate details of Nagaenthran’s case have been shared and scrutinised online. In Singapore, outrage against death penalty cases is usually confined to fringe activist groups, but this story has gone mainstream.
High profile social media accounts shared photographs of the letter sent to Nagaenthran’s family in Malaysia by the Singapore Prison Service.
It briefly outlined when their son would be executed, before providing a stream of information about the logistics they need to sort in order to enter Singapore during the pandemic including quarantine procedures.
“I’ve met people who expressed shock by how cold the notice of execution to the family was. But that’s actually the standard way that such notices are delivered to families.
“The only difference with Nagen’s family is that the letter was longer because they had to include COVID regulations,” Han explained.
Singapore has a zero-tolerance attitude towards drugs, and anyone caught carrying more than 15 grams of diamorphine may face the death penalty.
There was, however, a slight relaxation of the rules in 2012. The Misuse of Drugs Act was amended, giving judges the opportunity to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment with caning in specific cases.
One of these technicalities would allow for an offender to avoid execution if they are mentally disabled. It was on this point that Nagaenthran’s appeal was launched in 2015 and failed.
Stephanie McLennan, Senior Asia Initiatives Manager at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Nagaenthran received no “disability-specific accommodations” during his investigation and trial, a violation of international law.
But the defence of an intellectual disability has been disputed by the Singapore courts.
In a statement, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said: “He knew it was unlawful for him to be transporting the drugs, and he concealed the drugs to avoid it being found.
“Despite knowing the unlawfulness of his acts, he undertook the criminal endeavour so that he could pay off some part of a monetary debt. The Court of Appeal found that this was the working of a criminal mind.”
Little impact on criminal syndicates
If Nagaenthran is hanged, he will become the first person to be executed in Singapore since 2019.
Over the last eight years, 35 people have been killed by the state, according to Singapore government data. Twenty eight of them had been convicted of drug offences.
Singapore argues that its tough justice system makes it one of the safest places in the world.
Authorities say that drug traffickers are aware of the rules and given the risks faced, the quantity of illegal substances smuggled into the country is reduced.
Data from the MHA points to a 66 percent reduction in the average net weight of opium trafficked in the four-year period after the mandatory death penalty was introduced in 1990, for trafficking more than 1,200 grams of opium.
But the risk of death has not eliminated the illegal drug trade.
Last month, a Singaporean man failed in his appeal against a death sentence after he was caught smuggling one kilo (2.2 pounds) of cannabis into his homeland in 2018. And last year, another man was sentenced to death over Zoom for his role in a drug deal back in 2011.
The Singapore authorities may market the ultimate punishment as the ultimate deterrent, but anti-death penalty campaigners see things differently.
They argue that the death penalty punishes small players in a much larger game.
“Drug trafficking is still as prevalent in the region and Singapore is no different. Most of the executions witnessed over the years has largely been mules or trafficking in relatively minor quantities,” Dobby Chew, Executive Co-ordinator of the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network told Al Jazeera.
“The syndicates behind the drug trade are still very much present and in operation even with multiple executions over the years.”
Campaigners are keen for Nagaenthran’s case to stay at the top of the news agenda, possibly acting as a catalyst for more support to abolish executions.
“First they tried to execute someone who is intellectually disabled. Now they are granting him some form of mercy and treating him for COVID-19,” said Chew.
“But for all we know, once he is cured, they’ll proceed with the execution. I think that the absurdity of the turn of events would force people to rethink what they know of the death penalty.”
Monday, 8 November 2021
Mercy petition seeks support to save Malaysian-Indian from gallows in Singapore
Source: The Indian Express (5 November 2021)
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/singapore-malaysian-indian-nagaenthran-k-dharmalingam-death-sentence-appeal-petition-7608025/
An online petition to save an Indian-origin Malaysian from gallows next week has gathered nearly 40,000 signatures with human rights activists urging the government to halt the execution, saying the man is intellectually disabled.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who is on death row at Singapore’s Changi Prison, was convicted in 2010 for drug trafficking.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday said that the High Court and the Court of Appeal held that Nagaenthran’s mental responsibility for his offence was not substantially impaired.
He was found to have clearly understood that what he did was a crime and took the “calculated risk” to pay off his debt.
This was the finding by the High Court while sentencing the convict to death in 2010 for importing drugs into Singapore and it was upheld by the Court of Appeal, which “flatly rejected his account of being coerced under duress”, TODAY newspaper quoted the MHA as saying.
The MHA also said it is helping Nagaenthran’s family with travel arrangements from Malaysia to Singapore and that his visitors will be granted extended face-to-face visits daily, according to the Singapore tabloid.
Nagaenthran was convicted and given the death penalty in November 2010 for importing 42.72 grams of heroin a year before.
“His petition to the President for clemency was unsuccessful,” the MHA said.
An online report, cited by media outlets, said Nagaenthran would be hanged on November 10.
The petition to President Halimah Yacob to pardon Nagaenthran was started on October 29. It seeks 50,000 signatures in support of the clemency plea to the president. It has gathered 39,962 signatures as of Thursday.
The petition states that the convict should be pardoned because he had testified that he was “coerced” into drug trafficking by a man who had threatened to kill his girlfriend.
It also states that Nagaenthran has an intellectual disability and a low IQ, impaired executive functioning and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled, committed a non-violent crime and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore’s commitment to the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) by pardoning Nagaenthran’s death sentence,” media reports said, citing the petition.
Nagaenthran had first appealed to be resentenced under amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act that were passed in 2012.
The amendments allow a court to sentence a drug offender to life imprisonment instead of death if he is merely a courier on the condition that the public prosecutor issues the offender a certificate of substantive assistance for helping the Central Narcotics Bureau disrupt drug-trafficking activities.
Nagaenthran then lodged a second appeal for a judicial review into the public prosecutor’s decision not to issue him a certificate of substantive assistance.
The High Court dismissed both applications and in 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed both of Nageanthran’s appeals against the High Court’s decision.
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/singapore-malaysian-indian-nagaenthran-k-dharmalingam-death-sentence-appeal-petition-7608025/
An online petition to save an Indian-origin Malaysian from gallows next week has gathered nearly 40,000 signatures with human rights activists urging the government to halt the execution, saying the man is intellectually disabled.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam, who is on death row at Singapore’s Changi Prison, was convicted in 2010 for drug trafficking.
Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday said that the High Court and the Court of Appeal held that Nagaenthran’s mental responsibility for his offence was not substantially impaired.
He was found to have clearly understood that what he did was a crime and took the “calculated risk” to pay off his debt.
This was the finding by the High Court while sentencing the convict to death in 2010 for importing drugs into Singapore and it was upheld by the Court of Appeal, which “flatly rejected his account of being coerced under duress”, TODAY newspaper quoted the MHA as saying.
The MHA also said it is helping Nagaenthran’s family with travel arrangements from Malaysia to Singapore and that his visitors will be granted extended face-to-face visits daily, according to the Singapore tabloid.
Nagaenthran was convicted and given the death penalty in November 2010 for importing 42.72 grams of heroin a year before.
“His petition to the President for clemency was unsuccessful,” the MHA said.
An online report, cited by media outlets, said Nagaenthran would be hanged on November 10.
The petition to President Halimah Yacob to pardon Nagaenthran was started on October 29. It seeks 50,000 signatures in support of the clemency plea to the president. It has gathered 39,962 signatures as of Thursday.
The petition states that the convict should be pardoned because he had testified that he was “coerced” into drug trafficking by a man who had threatened to kill his girlfriend.
It also states that Nagaenthran has an intellectual disability and a low IQ, impaired executive functioning and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled, committed a non-violent crime and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore’s commitment to the UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) by pardoning Nagaenthran’s death sentence,” media reports said, citing the petition.
Nagaenthran had first appealed to be resentenced under amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act that were passed in 2012.
The amendments allow a court to sentence a drug offender to life imprisonment instead of death if he is merely a courier on the condition that the public prosecutor issues the offender a certificate of substantive assistance for helping the Central Narcotics Bureau disrupt drug-trafficking activities.
Nagaenthran then lodged a second appeal for a judicial review into the public prosecutor’s decision not to issue him a certificate of substantive assistance.
The High Court dismissed both applications and in 2019, the Court of Appeal dismissed both of Nageanthran’s appeals against the High Court’s decision.
Tuesday, 2 November 2021
20,000 Please for Presidential Pardon over Malaysian Man on Death Row
Source: Coconuts KL (2 November 2021)
https://coconuts.co/kl/news/20000-plead-for-presidential-pardon-over-malaysian-man-on-death-row/
Nearly 20,000 people have signed an online petition pleading to Singapore President Halimah Yacob for clemency over an intellectually-disabled Malaysian man on death row.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam was 21 when he was arrested in Singapore in 2009 and subsequently convicted for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine, a narcotic analgesic used to treat severe pain. Now 33, Nagaenthran reportedly suffers from ADHD and has a very low IQ of 69.
He faces imminent execution on Nov. 10.
His family was informed of the scheduled hanging two weeks ago, according to Singaporean activist-journalist Kirsten Han, who said that she has also been assisting the family with travel arrangements so that they can bid him farewell.
“Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled; committed a non-violent crime; and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore’s commitment to the [United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] by pardoning Nagaenthran’s death sentence,” the petition set up Thursday by human rights advocate Olivia Seow said. The petition also said that the Singapore justice system had failed to protect people with disabilities.
Those who commit crimes related to more than a dozen offenses including kidnapping, murder, and drug trafficking may be sentenced to death in Singapore, with exemptions to those under 18 and pregnant.
Rights groups such as Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, or ADPAN, and Malaysia’s Lawyers For Liberty have condemned the Singapore government’s decision to execute Nagaenthran.
“The execution of any person with mental or intellectual disabilities is extremely unconscionable and reprehensible. The person would be unlikely to have the appropriate capacity to stand trial or even appreciate the severity of their predicaments,” ADPAN executive coordinator Dobby Chew wrote Friday.
Lawyers For Liberty advisor N Surendran said in a statement: “No civilized nation should resort to hanging the mentally disabled.”
The human rights group also urged the Malaysian authorities to save Nagaenthran from the gallows.
https://coconuts.co/kl/news/20000-plead-for-presidential-pardon-over-malaysian-man-on-death-row/
Nearly 20,000 people have signed an online petition pleading to Singapore President Halimah Yacob for clemency over an intellectually-disabled Malaysian man on death row.
Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam was 21 when he was arrested in Singapore in 2009 and subsequently convicted for trafficking 42.72g of diamorphine, a narcotic analgesic used to treat severe pain. Now 33, Nagaenthran reportedly suffers from ADHD and has a very low IQ of 69.
He faces imminent execution on Nov. 10.
His family was informed of the scheduled hanging two weeks ago, according to Singaporean activist-journalist Kirsten Han, who said that she has also been assisting the family with travel arrangements so that they can bid him farewell.
“Given that Nagaenthran is intellectually disabled; committed a non-violent crime; and was allegedly coerced by assaults and threats, we sincerely appeal for President Halimah Yacob to uphold Singapore’s commitment to the [United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities] by pardoning Nagaenthran’s death sentence,” the petition set up Thursday by human rights advocate Olivia Seow said. The petition also said that the Singapore justice system had failed to protect people with disabilities.
Those who commit crimes related to more than a dozen offenses including kidnapping, murder, and drug trafficking may be sentenced to death in Singapore, with exemptions to those under 18 and pregnant.
Rights groups such as Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, or ADPAN, and Malaysia’s Lawyers For Liberty have condemned the Singapore government’s decision to execute Nagaenthran.
“The execution of any person with mental or intellectual disabilities is extremely unconscionable and reprehensible. The person would be unlikely to have the appropriate capacity to stand trial or even appreciate the severity of their predicaments,” ADPAN executive coordinator Dobby Chew wrote Friday.
Lawyers For Liberty advisor N Surendran said in a statement: “No civilized nation should resort to hanging the mentally disabled.”
The human rights group also urged the Malaysian authorities to save Nagaenthran from the gallows.
Monday, 3 October 2016
Pakistan’s top court upholds death penalty for mentally-ill man
Source: Gulf News (2 October 2016)
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/pakistan-s-top-court-upholds-death-penalty-for-mentally-ill-man-1.1902861
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal brought by lawyers for a mentally ill prisoner facing execution, and a rights group said he could now be hanged next week.
Imdad Ali, who is aged around 50, was sentenced to death for the murder of a religious cleric in 2002.
He had been scheduled to hang on September 20 in a prison in the city of Vehari despite having been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Ali received a last-minute stay of execution from the Supreme Court last week. But with that stay now expired, he could receive a new “black warrant” and face execution as early as next Tuesday.
The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which is providing Ali with counsel, has sent a mercy petition to President Mamnoon Hussain along with testimony from medical experts.
“It is indisputable that Imdad suffers from serious mental illness,” said Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death penalty team at international charity Reprieve.
“There is therefore no doubt that, should Pakistan execute him, it will be committing a grave violation of both Pakistani and international law.
“It is shocking that the system has failed Imdad at every turn — right the way up to the Supreme Court. The Pakistan government must immediately halt Imdad’s execution, and undertake a comprehensive review into how someone who is clearly mentally unfit to be executed has been allowed to come so near to the noose.”
Pakistan reinstated the death penalty and established military courts after suffering its deadliest-ever extremist attack, when gunmen stormed a school in the northwest in 2014 and killed more than 150 people — mostly children.
Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but later extended to all capital offences. The number of those executed since then now stands at 419 from more than 8,000 death row prisoners.
A new report by JPP and Yale Law School issued Tuesday said Pakistan’s criminal legal system is riddled with errors that prevent it from adjudicating capital cases fairly.
It accused authorities of having hanged six people who were juveniles at the time of their offences, in breach of international law, and said the length of time prisoners spent on death row — 11.5 years on average — harms their mental and physical health.
http://gulfnews.com/news/asia/pakistan/pakistan-s-top-court-upholds-death-penalty-for-mentally-ill-man-1.1902861
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an appeal brought by lawyers for a mentally ill prisoner facing execution, and a rights group said he could now be hanged next week.
Imdad Ali, who is aged around 50, was sentenced to death for the murder of a religious cleric in 2002.
He had been scheduled to hang on September 20 in a prison in the city of Vehari despite having been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Ali received a last-minute stay of execution from the Supreme Court last week. But with that stay now expired, he could receive a new “black warrant” and face execution as early as next Tuesday.
The Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which is providing Ali with counsel, has sent a mercy petition to President Mamnoon Hussain along with testimony from medical experts.
“It is indisputable that Imdad suffers from serious mental illness,” said Harriet McCulloch, deputy director of the death penalty team at international charity Reprieve.
“There is therefore no doubt that, should Pakistan execute him, it will be committing a grave violation of both Pakistani and international law.
“It is shocking that the system has failed Imdad at every turn — right the way up to the Supreme Court. The Pakistan government must immediately halt Imdad’s execution, and undertake a comprehensive review into how someone who is clearly mentally unfit to be executed has been allowed to come so near to the noose.”
Pakistan reinstated the death penalty and established military courts after suffering its deadliest-ever extremist attack, when gunmen stormed a school in the northwest in 2014 and killed more than 150 people — mostly children.
Hangings were initially reinstated only for those convicted of terrorism, but later extended to all capital offences. The number of those executed since then now stands at 419 from more than 8,000 death row prisoners.
A new report by JPP and Yale Law School issued Tuesday said Pakistan’s criminal legal system is riddled with errors that prevent it from adjudicating capital cases fairly.
It accused authorities of having hanged six people who were juveniles at the time of their offences, in breach of international law, and said the length of time prisoners spent on death row — 11.5 years on average — harms their mental and physical health.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Amnesty damns Japan's death row as cruel, inhuman
From ABC Radio Australia
11 September 2009
The use of the death penalty is on the decline globally. Japan is one of the few industrialised countries to continue to use it, hanging a smalll number of prisoners each year. Amnesty International says the conditions for those on Japan's death row to be curel, inhuman and degrading.
Listen to the interview here.
Presenter: Stephanie Foxley
Speaker: James Welsh, Amnesty International's health expert
WELSH: Yes, this report deals with mental health aspects of death penalty in Japan. We have have had long standing concerns about the death penalty itself in Japan but of growing concern are reports that mentally ill prisoners are being sentenced to death and are being executed. what we've found in trying to investigate the problem was firstly that there are major obstacles to anyone finding out information about the situation of prisoners on death row in Japan it's a very secret and secretive system and this has been found not just by us but by lawyers in Japan and also UN bodies trying to assess the situation. What we found was that prisoners on death row are kept in very harsh conditions, they are isolated, the are prevented from talking to staff or other prisoners and this level of pressure, together with the knowledge that they are going to be executed has a major impact on their mental health. Added to that there's a fact that prisoners are not given a date of their execution, which means every day the potentially face the fact that this could be their last day and this ratchets up the level of pressure on the prisoners. The families of course, are likewise not given notice of the execution of their family member. So all in all it's secretive, it's harsh and it's likely to give rise to high levels of mental stress.
FOXLEY: How many prisoners are we talking about?
WELSH: At the moment there are 102 prisoners on death row in Japan. There are other prisoners who's trials are ongoing, so some of those will certainly join their fellow prisoners on death row. Then others may face execution or may die of natural causes.
FOXLEY: What's the percentage of those that have been diagnosed as mentally ill?
WELSH: Well, that's an extremely relevant question and one that's very hard to answer precisely because of the level of secrecy that applies. We site 5 cases in our report, two of which we give in considerable detail drawing on court documents on medical assessments made for the court. But the answer is, we just don't know, we suspect that there are high levels of mental health problems ranging from mild to very serious, but we just don't know.
FOXLEY: Are there not international standards that are supposed to be followed with regard to the welfare of prisoners, even those on death row?
WELSH: Yes, all prisoners should be protected by basic standards. The Human Rights Committee for the UN has made precisely this point to the Japanese authorities on many many occasions, particularly expressing grave concern about the lack of notice of execution and the impact that could have on prisoners. but up to this point that has been no satisfactory response from the authorities. Now, there was an election in Japan very recently, and a new government will come to power next week, they have committed themselves to a public dialogue on the death penalty, so we see this as quite a hopeful point of entry for our report and for a wider discussion on the death penalty itself in Japan.
FOXLEY: Have you had any confirmation that there will be a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty permanently?
WELSH: There has been no such commitment given, we would be very keen to see such a moratorium take place to allow for a proper debate. We will be making this point to the new government and we will have to see how they respond.
FOXLEY: If the death penalty is not abolished, is there likely to be any abuse of claiming mental illness to avoid the death penalty, is this perhaps one of Japans worries?
WELSH: I don't know if it's a worry. It's a point that can be raised or discussed, in some of the cases we are talking about, the evidence is quite striking. We don't have any concerns that there could be fraud or faked mental illnesses, it's not an easy thing to fake effectively, particularly given the nature of some of the prisoners, they are not medical students, they haven't read up on mental health issues. So, it's a point that can be raised but it's a trivial point and I expect the debate to come down to that level.
11 September 2009
The use of the death penalty is on the decline globally. Japan is one of the few industrialised countries to continue to use it, hanging a smalll number of prisoners each year. Amnesty International says the conditions for those on Japan's death row to be curel, inhuman and degrading.
Listen to the interview here.
Presenter: Stephanie Foxley
Speaker: James Welsh, Amnesty International's health expert
WELSH: Yes, this report deals with mental health aspects of death penalty in Japan. We have have had long standing concerns about the death penalty itself in Japan but of growing concern are reports that mentally ill prisoners are being sentenced to death and are being executed. what we've found in trying to investigate the problem was firstly that there are major obstacles to anyone finding out information about the situation of prisoners on death row in Japan it's a very secret and secretive system and this has been found not just by us but by lawyers in Japan and also UN bodies trying to assess the situation. What we found was that prisoners on death row are kept in very harsh conditions, they are isolated, the are prevented from talking to staff or other prisoners and this level of pressure, together with the knowledge that they are going to be executed has a major impact on their mental health. Added to that there's a fact that prisoners are not given a date of their execution, which means every day the potentially face the fact that this could be their last day and this ratchets up the level of pressure on the prisoners. The families of course, are likewise not given notice of the execution of their family member. So all in all it's secretive, it's harsh and it's likely to give rise to high levels of mental stress.
FOXLEY: How many prisoners are we talking about?
WELSH: At the moment there are 102 prisoners on death row in Japan. There are other prisoners who's trials are ongoing, so some of those will certainly join their fellow prisoners on death row. Then others may face execution or may die of natural causes.
FOXLEY: What's the percentage of those that have been diagnosed as mentally ill?
WELSH: Well, that's an extremely relevant question and one that's very hard to answer precisely because of the level of secrecy that applies. We site 5 cases in our report, two of which we give in considerable detail drawing on court documents on medical assessments made for the court. But the answer is, we just don't know, we suspect that there are high levels of mental health problems ranging from mild to very serious, but we just don't know.
FOXLEY: Are there not international standards that are supposed to be followed with regard to the welfare of prisoners, even those on death row?
WELSH: Yes, all prisoners should be protected by basic standards. The Human Rights Committee for the UN has made precisely this point to the Japanese authorities on many many occasions, particularly expressing grave concern about the lack of notice of execution and the impact that could have on prisoners. but up to this point that has been no satisfactory response from the authorities. Now, there was an election in Japan very recently, and a new government will come to power next week, they have committed themselves to a public dialogue on the death penalty, so we see this as quite a hopeful point of entry for our report and for a wider discussion on the death penalty itself in Japan.
FOXLEY: Have you had any confirmation that there will be a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty permanently?
WELSH: There has been no such commitment given, we would be very keen to see such a moratorium take place to allow for a proper debate. We will be making this point to the new government and we will have to see how they respond.
FOXLEY: If the death penalty is not abolished, is there likely to be any abuse of claiming mental illness to avoid the death penalty, is this perhaps one of Japans worries?
WELSH: I don't know if it's a worry. It's a point that can be raised or discussed, in some of the cases we are talking about, the evidence is quite striking. We don't have any concerns that there could be fraud or faked mental illnesses, it's not an easy thing to fake effectively, particularly given the nature of some of the prisoners, they are not medical students, they haven't read up on mental health issues. So, it's a point that can be raised but it's a trivial point and I expect the debate to come down to that level.
Monday, 14 September 2009
Japan continues to execute mentally ill prisoners
10 September 2009
The government of Japan continues to execute prisoners who are mentally ill, according to a new Amnesty International report.
Hanging by a thread: mental health and the death penalty in Japan highlights five cases where mental illness has been reported, including two cases with extensive medical documentation. These prisoners remain on death row facing execution.
The exact number of death row prisoners with mental illness is unknown. The secrecy around the death penalty and prisoners' health, combined with a lack of scrutiny by independent mental health experts, has led to reliance on secondary testimony and documentation to assess the mental state of those on death row.
The government has a policy of not allowing access to prisoners on death row and denied Amnesty International's request for access.
Amnesty International's report also emphasises that prison conditions need to be improved to prevent inmates from developing serious mental health problems while on death row.
Japan has signed up to international standards that require that those with a serious mental illness be protected from the death penalty. The country is contravening those standards by its failure to prevent the execution of prisoners who are mentally ill.
As of 3 September 2009, 102 people are on death row in Japan waiting to find out if their government will put them to death. For those who have completed the legal process, death could come at a few hours' notice. Each day could be their last.
The arrival of a prison officer with a death warrant would signal their execution within hours. Some live like this year after year, sometimes for decades.
"To allow a prisoner to live for prolonged periods under the daily threat of imminent death is cruel, inhuman and degrading," said James Welsh, Amnesty International’s Health Coordinator and lead author of the report. "Amnesty International’s studies around the world have shown that those suffering mental health problems are at particular risk of ending up on death row.
"Mental disorders can give rise to crimes, impair the ability of a defendant to participate in an effective legal defence, and are likely to play a significant role in the decision of prisoners to terminate appeals. In Japan, condemned inmates are also at risk of developing a serious mental illness while on death row."
According to the report, Japan is breaching its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in its treatment of prisoners on death row. Conditions in prisons are harsh and prisoners on death row are especially vulnerable to developing mental health problems due to being imprisoned in isolation with little human contact.
Amnesty International is concerned that prisoners are not allowed to talk to one another – a restriction enforced by strict isolation. Contact with family members, lawyers and others can be restricted to as little as five minutes at a time.
Apart from visits to the toilet, prisoners are not allowed to move around the cell and must remain seated. Death row prisoners are less likely than other prisoners to have access to fresh air and light and more likely to suffer additional punishments because of behaviour that may infringe the strict rules imposed on them.
"These inhuman conditions increase a prisoner’s anxiety and anguish and in many cases push prisoners over the edge and into a state of mental illness," said James Welsh.
The report calls on the government of Japan to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. It also urges the government of Japan to review all cases where mental illness may be a relevant factor, to ensure that prisoners with mental illness are not executed and to improve conditions for prisoners so that prisoners will not suffer declining mental health or the development of serious mental illness.
-----
The report is available here.
The government of Japan continues to execute prisoners who are mentally ill, according to a new Amnesty International report.
Hanging by a thread: mental health and the death penalty in Japan highlights five cases where mental illness has been reported, including two cases with extensive medical documentation. These prisoners remain on death row facing execution.
The exact number of death row prisoners with mental illness is unknown. The secrecy around the death penalty and prisoners' health, combined with a lack of scrutiny by independent mental health experts, has led to reliance on secondary testimony and documentation to assess the mental state of those on death row.
The government has a policy of not allowing access to prisoners on death row and denied Amnesty International's request for access.
Amnesty International's report also emphasises that prison conditions need to be improved to prevent inmates from developing serious mental health problems while on death row.
Japan has signed up to international standards that require that those with a serious mental illness be protected from the death penalty. The country is contravening those standards by its failure to prevent the execution of prisoners who are mentally ill.
As of 3 September 2009, 102 people are on death row in Japan waiting to find out if their government will put them to death. For those who have completed the legal process, death could come at a few hours' notice. Each day could be their last.
The arrival of a prison officer with a death warrant would signal their execution within hours. Some live like this year after year, sometimes for decades.
"To allow a prisoner to live for prolonged periods under the daily threat of imminent death is cruel, inhuman and degrading," said James Welsh, Amnesty International’s Health Coordinator and lead author of the report. "Amnesty International’s studies around the world have shown that those suffering mental health problems are at particular risk of ending up on death row.
"Mental disorders can give rise to crimes, impair the ability of a defendant to participate in an effective legal defence, and are likely to play a significant role in the decision of prisoners to terminate appeals. In Japan, condemned inmates are also at risk of developing a serious mental illness while on death row."
According to the report, Japan is breaching its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in its treatment of prisoners on death row. Conditions in prisons are harsh and prisoners on death row are especially vulnerable to developing mental health problems due to being imprisoned in isolation with little human contact.
Amnesty International is concerned that prisoners are not allowed to talk to one another – a restriction enforced by strict isolation. Contact with family members, lawyers and others can be restricted to as little as five minutes at a time.
Apart from visits to the toilet, prisoners are not allowed to move around the cell and must remain seated. Death row prisoners are less likely than other prisoners to have access to fresh air and light and more likely to suffer additional punishments because of behaviour that may infringe the strict rules imposed on them.
"These inhuman conditions increase a prisoner’s anxiety and anguish and in many cases push prisoners over the edge and into a state of mental illness," said James Welsh.
The report calls on the government of Japan to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. It also urges the government of Japan to review all cases where mental illness may be a relevant factor, to ensure that prisoners with mental illness are not executed and to improve conditions for prisoners so that prisoners will not suffer declining mental health or the development of serious mental illness.
-----
The report is available here.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Executions in Japan despite appeal plans
Japan's justice minister Kunio Hatoyama has now approved the execution of thirteen prisoners, with three more hangings carried out yesterday.
Three men were hanged in Tokyo and Osaka for murders committed up to 23 years ago.
Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, and Shinji Mutsuda, 37, were hanged in Tokyo, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, was executed in Osaka.
Miyazaki has been infamous in Japan for nearly 20 years after he was arrested and charged with the violent murders of four young girls in 1988 and 1989. Agence France-Presse reported this week that he "mutilated the bodies of the victims, slept next to the corpses and drank their blood".
Mutsuda was convicted of murder and robbery, and Yamasaki was convicted of murdering two women in 1985 and 1990 for insurance money.
A question of sanity
The question of whether Miyazaki was sane enough to be held criminally responsible for the killings was central to his various court appearances.
Over nearly 20 years it took his case to move through the legal process, Miyazaki said a "rat man" was responsible for the killings, referring to a cartoon character he drew.
His lawyers argued he was suffering from mental illness, an argument reinforced by psychiatric assessments.
Mainichi Japan reported that he repeated incomprehensible statements during his court hearings.
"I feel as if I committed the crimes in my dreams," he said in one hearing.
"I was scared because a 'rat person' appeared. My alter ego suddenly appeared and committed the acts," he said at another time.
It said various psychiatric evaluations had returned different assessments of his mental state.
He was variously diagnosed as suffering from a personality disorder, a multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia, with different assessments of the level to which he could be held responsible.
Appeal underway
Miyazaki was executed despite the fact that his lawyer was preparing to apply for a retrial.
"I had been preparing to file a request for a retrial over the past few months," Maiko Tagusari said, according to a second report by Mainichi Japan.
"I strongly protested (to the ministry) for carrying out the execution even though they knew about my plans.
"What I had feared actually happened."
She said she wrote to Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama in late May asking him not to order the execution of Miyazaki.
Political support
India's Economic Times reported that Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said after the executions he supported the use of the death penalty.
"In Japan, the majority view is that capital punishment should be maintained, so I feel no need to change what we have continued doing until now," he said.
However he appeared to acknowledge the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, adding: "But we also have to keep an eye on trends of world opinion."
Related stories:
Japan: Execution possible despite mental doubts -- 10 June, 2008
Executions in Japan -- 2006 - 2008 -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Minister steps up rate of hangings -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 09 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 04 September, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Three men were hanged in Tokyo and Osaka for murders committed up to 23 years ago.
Tsutomu Miyazaki, 45, and Shinji Mutsuda, 37, were hanged in Tokyo, and Yoshio Yamasaki, 73, was executed in Osaka.
Miyazaki has been infamous in Japan for nearly 20 years after he was arrested and charged with the violent murders of four young girls in 1988 and 1989. Agence France-Presse reported this week that he "mutilated the bodies of the victims, slept next to the corpses and drank their blood".
Mutsuda was convicted of murder and robbery, and Yamasaki was convicted of murdering two women in 1985 and 1990 for insurance money.
A question of sanity
The question of whether Miyazaki was sane enough to be held criminally responsible for the killings was central to his various court appearances.
Over nearly 20 years it took his case to move through the legal process, Miyazaki said a "rat man" was responsible for the killings, referring to a cartoon character he drew.
His lawyers argued he was suffering from mental illness, an argument reinforced by psychiatric assessments.
Mainichi Japan reported that he repeated incomprehensible statements during his court hearings.
"I feel as if I committed the crimes in my dreams," he said in one hearing.
"I was scared because a 'rat person' appeared. My alter ego suddenly appeared and committed the acts," he said at another time.
It said various psychiatric evaluations had returned different assessments of his mental state.
He was variously diagnosed as suffering from a personality disorder, a multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia, with different assessments of the level to which he could be held responsible.
Appeal underway
Miyazaki was executed despite the fact that his lawyer was preparing to apply for a retrial.
"I had been preparing to file a request for a retrial over the past few months," Maiko Tagusari said, according to a second report by Mainichi Japan.
"I strongly protested (to the ministry) for carrying out the execution even though they knew about my plans.
"What I had feared actually happened."
She said she wrote to Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama in late May asking him not to order the execution of Miyazaki.
Political support
India's Economic Times reported that Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said after the executions he supported the use of the death penalty.
"In Japan, the majority view is that capital punishment should be maintained, so I feel no need to change what we have continued doing until now," he said.
However he appeared to acknowledge the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, adding: "But we also have to keep an eye on trends of world opinion."
Related stories:
Japan: Execution possible despite mental doubts -- 10 June, 2008
Executions in Japan -- 2006 - 2008 -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Minister steps up rate of hangings -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 09 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 04 September, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Japan: Execution possible despite mental doubts
Amnesty International (AI) is concerned that a prisoner who withdrew a High Court appeal against his death sentence may be executed before the end of June.
According to an ‘urgent action’ appeal issued by the organisation late last week, Makino Tadashi has had his appeal for clemency rejected and is therefore "at imminent risk of execution".
Makino's lawyers have challenged his decisions in court and made unsuccessful appeals for a retrial in three levels of Japan's courts.
AI said he was sentenced to death in the Fukuoka District Court in 1990, despite his lawyers arguing during the trial that he lacked adequate mental capacity and could not be held responsible for his crimes.
"Makino appealed to the High Court but later withdrew his appeal," the organisation said.
His lawyers "challenged his motion to withdraw his appeal on the grounds that he was not fully aware of his actions" and appealed to the Fukuoka District Court for a retrial. They then appealed to the Fukuoka High Court and later the Supreme Court.
When the final appeal was rejected in January 2006, they submitted an appeal for clemency to the Ministry of Justice, which was rejected on 29 May 2008.
Makino, who was born in 1950, was sentenced to death for murdering one woman and injuring two others. He had earlier served 16 and a half years in prison for murder and attempted robbery committed when he was 19.
Appeal for action
Amnesty International is encouraging people to write letters as soon as possible to Justice Minister Hatoyama, calling on him:
* not to execute Tadashi Makino;
* to end the secrecy surrounding the death penalty in Japan by giving advance notice of executions to death row prisoners and their families;
* to order an immediate moratorium on the death penalty with a view to eventual abolition; and
* to commute all death sentences.
Appeals should be sent to:
HATOYAMA Kunio
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
1-1-1 KasumigasekiChiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8977, Japan
Fax: +81 3 3592 7088
+81 3 5511 7200 (via Public Information & Foreign Liaison Office)
Salutation: Dear Minister
Disturbing record
Hatoyama has a disturbing record of support for the death penalty, executing 10 prisoners since he was appointed in August 2007. Seven executions have been carried out so far this year.
AI said there were currently 105 people on death row in Japan, and at least 23 people who went on trial in 2007 were facing the death penalty -- the highest number since 1962.
Related stories:
Executions in Japan -- 2006 - 2008 -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Minister steps up rate of hangings -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 09 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 04 September, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
According to an ‘urgent action’ appeal issued by the organisation late last week, Makino Tadashi has had his appeal for clemency rejected and is therefore "at imminent risk of execution".
Makino's lawyers have challenged his decisions in court and made unsuccessful appeals for a retrial in three levels of Japan's courts.
AI said he was sentenced to death in the Fukuoka District Court in 1990, despite his lawyers arguing during the trial that he lacked adequate mental capacity and could not be held responsible for his crimes.
"Makino appealed to the High Court but later withdrew his appeal," the organisation said.
His lawyers "challenged his motion to withdraw his appeal on the grounds that he was not fully aware of his actions" and appealed to the Fukuoka District Court for a retrial. They then appealed to the Fukuoka High Court and later the Supreme Court.
When the final appeal was rejected in January 2006, they submitted an appeal for clemency to the Ministry of Justice, which was rejected on 29 May 2008.
Makino, who was born in 1950, was sentenced to death for murdering one woman and injuring two others. He had earlier served 16 and a half years in prison for murder and attempted robbery committed when he was 19.
Appeal for action
Amnesty International is encouraging people to write letters as soon as possible to Justice Minister Hatoyama, calling on him:
* not to execute Tadashi Makino;
* to end the secrecy surrounding the death penalty in Japan by giving advance notice of executions to death row prisoners and their families;
* to order an immediate moratorium on the death penalty with a view to eventual abolition; and
* to commute all death sentences.
Appeals should be sent to:
HATOYAMA Kunio
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
1-1-1 KasumigasekiChiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-8977, Japan
Fax: +81 3 3592 7088
+81 3 5511 7200 (via Public Information & Foreign Liaison Office)
Salutation: Dear Minister
Disturbing record
Hatoyama has a disturbing record of support for the death penalty, executing 10 prisoners since he was appointed in August 2007. Seven executions have been carried out so far this year.
AI said there were currently 105 people on death row in Japan, and at least 23 people who went on trial in 2007 were facing the death penalty -- the highest number since 1962.
Related stories:
Executions in Japan -- 2006 - 2008 -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Minister steps up rate of hangings -- 12 April, 2008
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 09 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 04 September, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Japan: Minister steps up rate of hangings
Japan hanged four death row prisoners on Thursday this week (10 April), marking a sharp increase in the rate of hangings in the past two years.
The latest executions bring to ten the number of death warrants approved by Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama. He has approved in four months the same number of hangings his predecessor approved in 11 months.
The justice ministry confirmed the identity of the four men, only the third time it had done so. They were Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64, Masaharu Nakamura, 61, Masahito Sakamoto, 41, and Kaoru Okashita, 61.
Nakamoto and Nakamura were hanged in Osaka, and Sakamoto and Okashita in Tokyo.
The BBC online reported that Hatoyama dismissed concerns about the increase in executions.
"I have not paid any attention to the interval [since February's executions]," he told reporters.
"As justice minister, I am simply carrying out the demands of the law."
As well as the rate of executions increasing, it also appears the minister is moving to implement faster executions after a death sentence is confirmed, something he called for in September 2007.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported three of the four men executed were hanged within four years of their death sentences being finalised. During the previous decade, the average wait was about eight years.
Human rights concern
Human rights organisation Amnesty International said it deeply regretted the latest executions, and expressed its alarm at the current rate of hangings.
The organisation's Japan chapter condemned the executions and questioned the guilt of three of the men hanged.
"It is unforgivable that the executions were again conducted secretly," said spokesperson Makoto Teranaka, according to a report by the AFP newsagency.
"Observing the current pace of executions, we can't help but predict a huge number of executions this year, which goes totally against the world trend of abolishing capital punishment and is a shame on Japan."
The organisation said two of the executed prisoners were acquitted in early trials, and a third continued to insist on his innocence. It said the fourth may have been mentally ill.
Concerns about the pace of executions were echoed in a statement issued by Amnesty International in London.
"We are extremely concerned about the increased number of executions,” the statement said.
"We call on the Japanese government to adopt an immediate moratorium on executions in accordance with last year's UN resolution."
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition, by a majority of 104 votes to 54.
A poet silenced
According to the AFP report, the four executed this week included a poet who wrote traditional poetry expressing remorse for the two murders for which he was convicted.
Kaoru Okashita, who also used the surname Akinaga, wrote traditional tanka poetry on death row.
The head of a tanka club who published Okashita's poetry said he regularly sent her poems and she had only just sent back the latest proof-read verse.
"He once told me he hoped to live until next year when our group's tanka anthology is published. But his wish wasn't realised," Keiko Mitsumoto said.
"His poetry was very, very gentle and even offered solace and encouragement to me. I could hardly believe he would commit murder.
"He said he feared the day would suddenly come when the footsteps of a guard would stop in front of his cell to announce his execution.
"He seemed prepared for that, though, along with not meeting those close to him for a final farewell."
Related stories:
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 9 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 4 September, 2007
Japan executed mentally ill man -- 26 August, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
The latest executions bring to ten the number of death warrants approved by Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama. He has approved in four months the same number of hangings his predecessor approved in 11 months.
The justice ministry confirmed the identity of the four men, only the third time it had done so. They were Katsuyoshi Nakamoto, 64, Masaharu Nakamura, 61, Masahito Sakamoto, 41, and Kaoru Okashita, 61.
Nakamoto and Nakamura were hanged in Osaka, and Sakamoto and Okashita in Tokyo.
The BBC online reported that Hatoyama dismissed concerns about the increase in executions.
"I have not paid any attention to the interval [since February's executions]," he told reporters.
"As justice minister, I am simply carrying out the demands of the law."
As well as the rate of executions increasing, it also appears the minister is moving to implement faster executions after a death sentence is confirmed, something he called for in September 2007.
The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported three of the four men executed were hanged within four years of their death sentences being finalised. During the previous decade, the average wait was about eight years.
Human rights concern
Human rights organisation Amnesty International said it deeply regretted the latest executions, and expressed its alarm at the current rate of hangings.
The organisation's Japan chapter condemned the executions and questioned the guilt of three of the men hanged.
"It is unforgivable that the executions were again conducted secretly," said spokesperson Makoto Teranaka, according to a report by the AFP newsagency.
"Observing the current pace of executions, we can't help but predict a huge number of executions this year, which goes totally against the world trend of abolishing capital punishment and is a shame on Japan."
The organisation said two of the executed prisoners were acquitted in early trials, and a third continued to insist on his innocence. It said the fourth may have been mentally ill.
Concerns about the pace of executions were echoed in a statement issued by Amnesty International in London.
"We are extremely concerned about the increased number of executions,” the statement said.
"We call on the Japanese government to adopt an immediate moratorium on executions in accordance with last year's UN resolution."
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a moratorium on executions as a step towards abolition, by a majority of 104 votes to 54.
A poet silenced
According to the AFP report, the four executed this week included a poet who wrote traditional poetry expressing remorse for the two murders for which he was convicted.
Kaoru Okashita, who also used the surname Akinaga, wrote traditional tanka poetry on death row.
The head of a tanka club who published Okashita's poetry said he regularly sent her poems and she had only just sent back the latest proof-read verse.
"He once told me he hoped to live until next year when our group's tanka anthology is published. But his wish wasn't realised," Keiko Mitsumoto said.
"His poetry was very, very gentle and even offered solace and encouragement to me. I could hardly believe he would commit murder.
"He said he feared the day would suddenly come when the footsteps of a guard would stop in front of his cell to announce his execution.
"He seemed prepared for that, though, along with not meeting those close to him for a final farewell."
Related stories:
Japan: Sixteen hanged in thirteen months -- 04 February, 2008
Japan finally names three executed -- 9 December, 2007
Minister wants ‘tranquil’ killing: Japan -- 29 October, 2007
Japan: New minister will approve hangings -- 4 September, 2007
Japan executed mentally ill man -- 26 August, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Sunday, 26 August 2007
Japan executed mentally ill man
One of three Japanese men hanged last week had been diagnosed as suffering from mental illness, according to an update released by Amnesty International (AI).
The human rights organisation said that, at the time of his trial, doctors from both the prosecution and defence found Hifumi Takezawa was mentally ill.
"At his appeal, his lawyer argued that Takezawa had apparently suffered a significant personality change as a result of a stroke, which made him paranoid and aggressive, but the judge rejected the appeal," AI said.
"It is not known whether Takezawa had received any medical treatment for his mental illness during his nine years on death row."
Hifumi Takezawa, 69, Yoshio Iwamoto, 63, and Kozo Segawa, 60, were hanged on 23 August in Tokyo and Nagoya.
AI said the men were hanged when the Japanese Diet was in recess, similar to previous executions.
"Japan has a record of executing prisoners with mental disabilities," AI said.
"The harsh condition of death row – isolation cell, lack of human interaction, and mostly the stress from being under perpetual threat of execution, means that many prisoners develop mental illness while they are on death row."
It said the Government's refusal to name the men hanged demonstrated "the extreme secrecy surrounding the implementation of the death penalty in Japan".
"Families and lawyers are usually not informed until after the executions and prisoners are often hanged at very short notice."
104 people remain on death row in Japan.
Background - Takezawa
According to a report by The Asahi Shimbun on 23 August, Takezawa was convicted of strangling a company executive in 1990 in the city of Nikko (then called Imaichi), Tochigi Prefecture.
He reportedly put the body in a car and set it alight. He also killed an elderly couple and set fire to their home their home in 1993 in the same city.
Related stories:
Japan: Lawyers condemn three more executions -- 24 August, 2007
Urgent move to stop executions in Japan -- 8 August, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Japan: Lonely wait for the noose -- 5 April 2006
Japan's death row hell -- 3 March 2006
The human rights organisation said that, at the time of his trial, doctors from both the prosecution and defence found Hifumi Takezawa was mentally ill.
"At his appeal, his lawyer argued that Takezawa had apparently suffered a significant personality change as a result of a stroke, which made him paranoid and aggressive, but the judge rejected the appeal," AI said.
"It is not known whether Takezawa had received any medical treatment for his mental illness during his nine years on death row."
Hifumi Takezawa, 69, Yoshio Iwamoto, 63, and Kozo Segawa, 60, were hanged on 23 August in Tokyo and Nagoya.
AI said the men were hanged when the Japanese Diet was in recess, similar to previous executions.
"Japan has a record of executing prisoners with mental disabilities," AI said.
"The harsh condition of death row – isolation cell, lack of human interaction, and mostly the stress from being under perpetual threat of execution, means that many prisoners develop mental illness while they are on death row."
It said the Government's refusal to name the men hanged demonstrated "the extreme secrecy surrounding the implementation of the death penalty in Japan".
"Families and lawyers are usually not informed until after the executions and prisoners are often hanged at very short notice."
104 people remain on death row in Japan.
Background - Takezawa
According to a report by The Asahi Shimbun on 23 August, Takezawa was convicted of strangling a company executive in 1990 in the city of Nikko (then called Imaichi), Tochigi Prefecture.
He reportedly put the body in a car and set it alight. He also killed an elderly couple and set fire to their home their home in 1993 in the same city.
Related stories:
Japan: Lawyers condemn three more executions -- 24 August, 2007
Urgent move to stop executions in Japan -- 8 August, 2007
Long wait, sudden death in Japan -- 28 August, 2006
Japan: Lonely wait for the noose -- 5 April 2006
Japan's death row hell -- 3 March 2006
Tuesday, 21 February 2006
Taiwan working towards abolition?
The government of Taiwan is working to lower the number of executions carried out each year, according to a report in the Taipei Times.
Justice Minister Morley Shih said the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has filed extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court in an effort to delay the execution of some prisoners. Where the Supreme Court has rejected these appeals, the MOJ has also attempted to stay the executions.
According to official MOJ figures, there were 109 people on death row in Taiwan as of 17 February, with 15 awaiting execution after they were given their final sentence. The death row population in said to be growing, with fewer executions being carried out.
The government is said to be aiming at eventual abolition of the death penalty, but Justice Minister Shih said a majority of people believed it was needed as a deterrent against crime.
Newspapers have reported cases of mental illness among prisoners on death row, including the suicide of a prisoner last month who reportedly told prison staff that waiting for his execution date was too painful.
Justice Minister Morley Shih said the Taiwanese Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has filed extraordinary appeals to the Supreme Court in an effort to delay the execution of some prisoners. Where the Supreme Court has rejected these appeals, the MOJ has also attempted to stay the executions.
According to official MOJ figures, there were 109 people on death row in Taiwan as of 17 February, with 15 awaiting execution after they were given their final sentence. The death row population in said to be growing, with fewer executions being carried out.
The government is said to be aiming at eventual abolition of the death penalty, but Justice Minister Shih said a majority of people believed it was needed as a deterrent against crime.
Newspapers have reported cases of mental illness among prisoners on death row, including the suicide of a prisoner last month who reportedly told prison staff that waiting for his execution date was too painful.
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