12 May 2005

Singapore's president rejects bid to stop execution

From Reuters
Thu May 12, 2005 01:51 AM ET

By Fayen Wong

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's president has rejected a last-ditch bid to stop the execution of a drug trafficker in a case that has generated unprecedented debate on the death penalty in Singapore.

Shanmugam Murugesu, 38, arrested at the Malaysian border with 1.03 kg (2.27 lb) of cannabis, lost an appeal against a conviction of drug trafficking and had his clemency bid rejected by Singapore's President S.R. Nathan last month.

His twin 14-year old sons, Gopalan and Krishnan Murugesu, have handed out hundreds of flyers in shopping districts to seek public support to stop Friday's execution.

Shanmugam's lawyer M. Ravi on Tuesday called for the president to convene a constitutional court to review Shanmugam's case.

The lawyer argued that Shanmugam's trial had been treated differently from six similar recent cases, where traffickers arrested with more than 700 grams of cannabis had seen their charges reduced to below 500 grams -- the limit above which the death sentence is mandatory.


To continue reading...

And I found via a google news search an example of someone getting it all wrong,
Singapore is planning to hang a man convicted of smuggling one kilogramme of heroin [cannabis not heroin]tomorrow, Friday the 13th, a civil rights group announced today.


Unless the article is referring to someone else on death row?

3 comments:

redrown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
redrown said...

i think they amended it already.

dfgd said...

and not so much as a thank you.