Singapore: British writer Alan Shadrake plans to do time with Orwell and Huxley in Changi

Alan Shadrake

At 76, Alan Shadrake knows the books he will be taking into solitary confinement if he is sent to Changi prison by Singapore's Appeals Court today - Rudyard Kipling's Kim, George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and a couple of his favourite H.G. Wells novels.

Hardly the reading material of a dangerous subversive.

Yet the veteran British journalist wasn't expecting to be arrested last year, let alone convicted, for ''scandalising Singapore's judiciary''. His crime? Writing a book, Once a Jolly Hangman, which began as a profile of Singapore's veteran hangman Darshan Singh - a character who once tried to get into the Guinness World Records book for having executed about 1000 people between 1959 and his retirement in 2006.

But during the course of his research, Shadrake decided many of those people on Singh's gallows had been the victims of the city-state's flawed legal system.

At Shadrake's trial in October, the judge ruled the book could cause readers to lose faith in Singapore's justice system since it implied judges were ''influenced by political and economic situations and are biased against the weak and the poor''. Shadrake was sentenced to eight weeks' imprisonment or 6 weeks' plus a fine - a judgment which attracted criticism around the world.

This week Shadrake spoke exclusively about his book to the Herald. A heavily legalled version will be published in Australia next month, including the original foreword by Margaret John, of Amnesty International, and an updated foreword by the prominent Australian civil rights campaigner Julian Burnside, QC.

Shadrake moved to Singapore in 2003 after a reporting career mainly spent in Fleet Street, Cold War Berlin and California. An early case covered was that of the Vietnamese-born Australian Nguyen Tuong Van, arrested at Changi Airport in possession of less than 400 grams of heroin.

Hangman Darshan Singh

When Nguyen was sentenced to death in 2004, Shadrake interviewed Singh, who boasted that in 1964 he had hanged 18 people in a single day. ''That interview sparked the idea of doing a book on Singh,'' Shadrake said. ''But as I investigated the cases involving the death penalty in Singapore, I realised it had to be a very critical book. So I abandoned that plan and told Singh, but he continued to help me.''(Nguyen was executed - by Singh - in 2005.)

Shadrake continued writing his book for the next four years but its thrust now was that rich citizens of wealthy countries were far more likely to escape a death sentence in Singapore than poor citizens of Third World countries, backed up by many case studies. He quoted data from Amnesty International and the University of California which showed that since 1981, Singapore has executed nearly 470 people. In the mid-1990s, more than 70 a year were being hanged, and from 1994 to 1999 the execution rate of 13.57 per million of the population was the world's highest.

But since 2005 the numbers executed have dropped to single digits. Shadrake's book argues that this is largely the result of pressure from Western and Asian countries.

He says two-thirds of the hangings have been of drug traffickers, usually small-time couriers and low-level dealers while the ''Mr Bigs'' of Singapore's drug trade are rarely caught, or executed. It was this accusation which landed Shadrake in court.

His book was initially published in Malaysia. But it was imported into Singapore, where ''it appeared in all the major bookstores and sold quite well, apparently''. He returned to Singapore for the launch last July because all indications were that nothing would happen: ''But they were waiting to seize me …''

He says he will not pay a fine so if the worst happens he will serve the 8 weeks - ''5 if I'm a good boy. They reckon I'll be in a solitary cell … And I'll be allowed to read books - as long as they are not political.''

Once a Jolly Hangman, by Alan Shadrake, Pier 9, $32.99, will be released on May 1.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, April 10, 2011

British author appeals six-week jail term

SINGAPORE, April 11, 2011 (AFP) - A British author launched an appeal on Monday against a six-week jail term, saying the charges against him were "bloody nonsense".

Alan Shadrake, 76, was sentenced and fined $20,000 in November last year after Singapore's High Court ruled that his book on the death penalty broke the city-state's laws.

Shadrake's lawyer M. Ravi told the Court of Appeal on Monday the book, entitled "Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock", did not damage public confidence in the judiciary.

"If the book had been considered to be as dangerous and risky... It is astonishing that it is not banned," Ravi said.

"The Singapore citizen is not so gullible as to lose faith in the judicial system... regardless of any abusive criticism directed at it."

The court reserved its judgment.

Shadrake, who is on bail, said after the hearing that bringing the charges against him "is bloody nonsense and if they put me in prison, I don't care".

The Attorney-General's Chambers had argued that a custodial sentence should be imposed on Shadrake as his book risked undermining the judiciary in the eyes of Singaporeans.

Principal senior state counsel David Chong said in court Monday that Shadrake's book had "transgressed the limits" of free speech and that his intention to publish a second edition showed an "avowed intention of the appellant to repeat the offence".

"A sentence of imprisonment is necessary to deter the appellant from repeating (his offence)... He should reap the consequences of his contempt," Chong said.

Shadrake said outside the court he was "feeling quite up" about the proceedings.

He added that the second edition of his book was due to be released May 1 in Australia, with sections deemed offending to the Singapore judiciary deleted or rephrased.

Source: AFP, April 11, 2011
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