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| Singapore's Changi Prison, Kho Jabing |
Kho Jabing executed at 3.30pm, first execution in Singapore not carried out at dawn of Friday
32-year-old Malaysian, Kho Jabing has been hanged at 3.30pm after the appeal for stay of execution was dismissed by the Court of Appeal this morning.
Kho Jabing, who is a native of Sarawak and came to Singapore to work as a manual worker, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Singapore in 2010.
After amendments were made in 2012 on the laws on the death penalty in Singapore, Kho Jabing was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane. The prosecution, however, appealed the re-sentencing and the case was brought to the Court of Appeal.
The court rejected his application for clemency in October 2015. On 23 November 2015, he was granted a temporary reprieve pending the outcome of a petition filed by his lawyers, which raised questions of fact and law.
On 6 April, the Court of Appeal lifted the temporary reprieve and upheld its decision to impose the death penalty on Kho Jabing.
Yesteday, lawyer, Gino Hardial Singh filed a criminal motion citing grounds of apparent bias on the part of Justice Andrew Phang, who had sat on both Jabing’s appeals. However, this criminal motion was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
On the same day, an originating summons was filed by lawyer, Ms Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss. She challenged the constitutionality of certain aspects of the amendments to the mandatory death penalty in Singapore.
Mrs Chong-Aruldoss had sought a stay of execution pending the scheduling of a hearing date for her application to be heard and was given the next day for the application to be heard at 9am.
After two hours of arguments made in the court, the five judges in the Court of Appeal decided to dismiss Jabing's appeal for a stay of execution and lifted the temporary stay of execution.
In a surprising turn of event, the Singapore government decided to hang Kho in the afternoon of Friday after the temporary stay of execution was lifted in the morning. Hangings in Singapore always take place at dawn on Friday until Kho's execution today.
Source: The Online Citizen, May 20, 2016
Singapore executes Malaysian convict hours after last appeal
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| Singapore's Changi Prison |
The Court of Appeal found no merit in the appeal by a lawyer representing Kho Jabing that challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty in Singapore. The decision ended a brief stay of execution, but the court left the timing of the execution to prison authorities.
Rachel Zheng of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign said it was the first time an execution in Singapore had proceeded on the same day that an appeal was dismissed.
"All of us are in deep shock," she said after being informed by Kho's family that he had been executed.
The Singapore Police Force's statement said the death sentence was carried out after Kho had been "accorded full due process under the law."
The European Union and Amnesty International had called on Singapore to grant Kho clemency, but applications to the president were rejected.
Executions in Singapore are by hanging, and are usually carried out before dawn at Changi prison. According to the prison records, Singapore executed four people in 2015, one for murder and three for drug crimes.
In 2012, Singapore amended its laws on the death penalty, making it no longer mandatory for those convicted of drug trafficking or murder to receive death sentences.
Source: Miami Herald, May 20, 2016
Kho Jabing hanged
SINGAPORE, May 20 — A Malaysian murder convict was hanged in Singapore today, police said, hours after the city-state’s highest court rejected a final bid for him to escape the gallows.
“A 32-year-old male Malaysian national, Jabing Kho had his death sentence carried out on 20 May 2016 at Changi Prison Complex,” the Singapore Police Force said in a statement.
Kho, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for the murder of a Chinese construction worker, had been due to hang in Changi Prison at dawn today, but was granted a brief last-minute reprieve after his lawyer filed a challenge.
The Court of Appeal heard the latest plea this morning but said it raised no new arguments about the 2008 robbery gone wrong, clearing the way for the execution.
“This case has been about many things but today, it’s about the abuse of the process of the court,” said Court of Appeal Judge Chao Hick Tin.
Allowing Kho to continue with legal challenges would throw the judicial system “into disrepute,” he added.After Kho was sentenced to death in 2010, Singapore amended its mandatory death penalty for murder, giving judges the discretion to impose life imprisonment under certain circumstances.
Kho’s case was reviewed and he was re-sentenced to a life term in 2013. But state prosecutors appealed that ruling and his death sentence was reinstated in January 2015.
He was scheduled for execution on November 6 last year but another last-minute appeal saved him.
Kho’s accomplice in the crime had his conviction for murder overturned and got more than 18 years in prison and 19 strokes of the cane.
Singapore, which has rejected calls by rights groups to abolish the death penalty, executed four people in 2015, one for murder and three for drug offences, according to prison statistics.
Malaysia also uses capital punishment, executing murderers and drug traffickers by hanging, a system which, like that in Singapore, dates back to British colonial rule.
Singapore Executes Malaysian Convict Hours After Last Appeal
A Malaysian man convicted of murder in Singapore was executed Friday hours after the city-state's highest court rejected a last-minute appeal, police said.
The Court of Appeal found no merit in the appeal by a lawyer representing Kho Jabing that challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty in Singapore. The decision ended a brief stay of execution, but the court left the timing of the execution to prison authorities.
Rachel Zheng of the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign said it was the first time an execution in Singapore had proceeded on the same day that an appeal was dismissed.
"All of us are in deep shock," she said after being informed by Kho's family that he had been executed.
The Singapore Police Force's statement said the death sentence was carried out after Kho had been "accorded full due process under the law."
Kho, 31, was accused of using a tree branch to assault and rob a construction worker in 2008. The worker died from multiple skull fractures and Kho was convicted and sentenced to death in 2010.
What followed was 6 years of legal twists during which he was sentenced to death, won appeals, resentenced to life imprisonment and caning, and again sentenced to death.
The European Union and Amnesty International had called on Singapore to grant Kho clemency, but applications to the president were rejected.
Executions in Singapore are by hanging, and are usually carried out before dawn at Changi prison. According to the prison records, Singapore executed 4 people in 2015, 1 for murder and 3 for drug crimes.
In 2012, Singapore amended its laws on the death penalty, making it no longer mandatory for those convicted of drug trafficking or murder to receive death sentences.