Singapore: Singaporean drug courier spared death penalty

How judicial caning is carried out
in Singapore

42-year-old given certificate of substantive assistance; will now serve life imprisonment and receive 15 strokes of cane

SINGAPORE — A 42-year-old drug courier yesterday became the latest to escape the gallows after a successful application to be resentenced under amended drug laws.

Yip Mun Hei, a Singaporean who trafficked 31 small packets of substance containing at least 18.43 grams of diamorphine, had received a certificate of substantive assistance for helping the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in disrupting drug trafficking activities in Singapore.

In the High Court yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng urged that Yip be resentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane instead of the death penalty for “substantively helping” the CNB.

The court also heard that Yip had proved that his involvement in the offence was restricted to transporting the drug and did not include any preparatory acts or offer to deliver it.

The Misuse of Drugs Act was amended together with the Penal Code in 2012 to remove the mandatory death penalty for certain types of homicide and drug trafficking offences.

A drug trafficker must have played only the role of a courier and either have cooperated with the CNB in a substantive way, or have a mental disability that substantially impairs his appreciation of the gravity of the act.

Click here to read the full article

Source: Today Online, May 27, 2014

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