Urgent action: Singapore. Yong Vui Kong, a young Malaysian, at imminent risk of execution

Yong Vui Kong

Yong Vui Kong, a 23-year-old Malaysian man, has lost his final judicial appeal against a mandatory death sentence. He is now at imminent risk of execution. Appeals are urgently needed to pressure Singapore’s President to spare his life.

On 4 April 2011, the Singapore Court of Appeal, Singapore’s highest court, dismissed Yong Vui Kong’s appeal. He was sentenced to death in January 2009 for trafficking 47 grams of heroin, a crime committed when he was 19 years old.

Yong Vui Kong is now at imminent risk of execution unless Singapore President S.R. Nathan grants clemency, a request that the President had previously rejected. The case has also generated widespread concern in Yong Vui Kong’s native Malaysia.

Amnesty International has called on Malaysian officials to intensify their diplomatic efforts to ask Singapore for clemency. In July 2010, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman announced, “I will be writing to the government of Singapore to plead for his clemency.” At the time, Malaysian legislators also called for clemency.

Under Singapore's drug laws, a defendant is automatically presumed guilty of drug trafficking in cases where possession of heroin exceeds two grams. This provision violates the defendant’s right to be presumed innocent of a crime until proven guilty.

Singaporean law makes the death penalty mandatory for trafficking more than 30 grams of heroin. In 2007, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said, “Singapore’s decision to make the death penalty mandatory keeps judges from considering all of the factors relevant to determining whether a death sentence would be permissible in a capital case.“

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English or your own language:

 Urging Singapore’s President to reconsider Yong Vui Kong's clemency petition and commute his death sentence, which was mandatorily imposed;

 Urging Malaysian Foreign Minister to press Singaporean President Nathan to reconsider Yong Vui Kong's clemency petition and commute his death sentence;

 Reminding Malaysia Foreign Minister’s of his commitment to call for clemency for Yong Vui Kong, a Malaysian who is also a native of his home state of Sabah.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 MAY 2011 TO:

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the fifth update of UA 296/09. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA36/001/2011/en

Foreign Minister of Malaysia:

His Excellency Datuk Seri Anifah Amam

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Wisma Putra

NO 1 Jalan Wisam Putra, Precinct 2

62602 Putrajuya, Malaysia

Fax: +60 3 8889 1717

Email: anifah@kln.gov.my

Salutation: Your Excellency

President of Singapore:

His Excellency SR Nathan

Office of the President

Orchard Road

Istana

Singapore 0922

Fax: +65 6735 3135

Email: s_r_nathan@istana.gov.sg

Salutation: Your Excellency

And copies to:

Editor-in-Chief

The Daily Express

Sabah Publishing House Sdn. Bhd.

P.O. Box 10139

88801 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Fax: +60-6-088-238611

Email: hotline@dailyexpress.com.my, forum@dailyexpress.com.my

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Ambassade de la République de Singapour

Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 198

1050 Bruxelles, Belgium

eMail: singemb_bru@sgmfa.gov.sg

Fax 02.660.86.85

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The mandatory imposition of the death penalty with no consideration of the defendant’s personal circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offence has been recognized by the UN Human Rights Committee to constitute an arbitrary deprivation of life.

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston said in 2007 that the fact that Singapore law makes the death penalty mandatory for drug trafficking was inconsistent with international human rights standards. “Singapore’s decision to make the death penalty mandatory keeps judges from considering all of the factors relevant to determining whether a death sentence would be permissible in a capital case. He also said that, “It is a fundamental human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

In resolution 2005/59, adopted on 20 April 2005, the UN Commission on Human Rights urged all states that still maintain the death penalty "to ensure… that the death penalty is not imposed… as a mandatory sentence".

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases and under any circumstances as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Please click here to sign an online petition urging Singapore's President to commute Yong Vui Kong's death sentence to a prison sentence.

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY.

Source: AI, April 5, 2011

_________________________

Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.

Comments

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issues three death penalty reprieves

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine issued execution reprieves for three death row inmates on Friday. In a statement, DeWine said he issued reprieves for Keith LaMar, Scott Group, and Davel Chinn, all of whom were set to be executed early next year. LaMar was scheduled to be executed on Jan. 13, 2027. He was convicted of aggravated murder for the deaths of five inmates during a 1993 riot at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. He received the death penalty for four of the killings. His new execution date is Jan. 13, 2030. Watch the latest NBC4 headlines in the video player above.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Syria | Court convicts Bashar al-Assad, sentences him to death

DAMASCUS, Syria (DPN)— A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced former President Bashar Assad and his younger brother, Maher Assad, to death in absentia for premeditated murder of multiple people including children; torture; arbitrary detention, and crimes against humanity committed during Syria’s conflict. The Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus also sentenced Atef Najib, Assad’s maternal cousin and former head of Political Security in the southern province of Daraa, to death. Najib appeared in court wearing a prisoner’s uniform and standing inside a cage as the judge read the sentence. The court ordered that Bashar and Maher Assad be pursued internationally.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog