Sat Jan 20, 2007
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International called on Singapore's government to spare the life of a 21-year-old Nigerian man due to be hanged for drug trafficking in the southeast Asian city-state.
Amnesty, which says the island nation of 4.4 million is believed to have the world's highest per capita execution rate, urged its members in a statement on its Web site www.amnesty.org on Saturday to appeal to Singapore officials to stop the hanging.
It said Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, who was arrested at Singapore's Changi airport in November 2004 carrying 727 grams of heroin, was scheduled to be hanged on Friday after his clemency appeal to Singapore's president failed last year.
Singapore's drug laws are among the world's harshest and the death sentence is mandatory for anyone carrying more than 15 grams of heroin.
Amnesty said the judge who convicted Tochi of drug smuggling "appears to have accepted that he (Tochi) might not have realised the substance he was carrying was heroin".
Singapore does not publicly announce the dates of executions, but they usually take place on Fridays at dawn at the city-state's Changi prison. Amnesty said more than 420 people had been executed in Singapore since 1991.
Government officials argue that its location close to drug-producing countries forces Singapore to take a tough stance on smuggling.
Singapore hanged Australian man Toung Van Nguyen, 25, in December 2005 despite repeated Australian pleas for clemency.
With regards to the 10 to 15 years low wage workers income will come up...NO need for silly excuses....
ReplyDeleteWhat i hope is that in 10 to 15 years the PAP loses power...and there will be a coalition govt in power...
to make sure we find a balance....in politics as well as economics.....hahaha.... (prettyplace blog)
Isn't that the wrong topic?
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not the first few years Singapore's stand on drug is known. Smuggle and die do not seem to be wrong (unless someone convinces me otherwise). Smugglers can very well skip this island anyway.