Jakarta: The affluent city-state of Singapore is preparing to execute as many as 13 people, including four Malaysian nationals, according to lawyers and human rights groups.
The Singaporean government is notoriously tight-lipped about executions before they are carried out, preferring to avoid public scrutiny, and did not respond to questions.
Executions are carried out by hanging and can be applied in murder, treason, kidnapping and drug cases. Their number has risen in recent years - from four in 2016, to eight in 2017 and 13 in 2018 - according to statistics buried in the Singapore Prison Service's annual report.
There are reportedly more than 40 prisoners on death row in Singapore, according to Amnesty International.
Australian man Nguyen Tuong Van was executed by Singapore back in 2005.
According to N Surendran, a lawyer and co-founder of the Malaysian campaign group Lawyers for Liberty, who is acting for some of the condemned men, a "bloodbath" is looming in Singapore's Changi prison.
“We at Lawyers for Liberty believe that more than 13 people have had their applications for clemency rejected. Our earlier estimate was 10 people. This means that the sword of Damocles is hanging over the heads of all these people and their families," he said.
"We could be facing nothing less than a bloodbath soon, a factory-style hanging of up to 13 people at one time, which hasn’t happened since the 1960s or 1970s."
"Up until now, though, no date has been set."
N Surendran is representing four death row Malaysian nationals - Nagenndaran Dharmalingam, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman, Gobi Avedian and Datchinamurthy Kataiah. All four men committed drug offences.
"Nagenndaran Dharmalingam's case is the most serious, he has an IQ of 69. An eminent psychiatrist in Singapore has confirmed he has a mental disability and all the previous lawyers have argued that he be spared because of the disability," he said.
Dharmalingam's clemency bid had not been rejected yet, he added, but the clemency bids for the other three men have been rejected. Pannir's was rejected back in May, while Avedian and Kataiah had had theirs rejected in the last couple of weeks.
"Singapore is clearly dismissing clemency petitions as a matter of policy, which is unlawful and in breach of international legal norms," N Surendran said.
The deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, Phil Robertson, said the looming mass executions demonstrated "the true face of the rights-abusing Singapore, that tries to hide its true nature behind the flashy montage of regional business conferences, Hollywood movies, fancy downtown skyscrapers, and high-end casinos.
“This case once again points out that Singapore should reform its death penalty appeals procedures to give the President full and independent authority to commute death sentences," he said of President Halimah Yacob.
"It’s frankly absurd to say the President has independent authority when she must seek the advice of the cabinet that has already decided to proceed with these sentences.”
In a statement released on Monday, Eric Paulsen, Malaysia's representative on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, also called on the Singaporean government to not carry out the executions.
"While the destructive effects of hard drugs on society are undeniable, these prisoners are drug mules who were tricked or pressured by drug syndicates who remain untouched by the law," he said.
The number of recorded executions carried out across the globe fell to 690 in 2018, the lowest in a decade, according to a recent Amnesty International report, though this figure does not include China - which is believed to carry out more than any other nation - but which does not release statistics.
Vietnam killed more than 85 people in 2018, more than any other country in south-east Asia, and has more than 600 people on death row. Thailand killed one person and has an estimated 551 people facing the death penalty.
Malaysia has 1275 people on death row, according to Amnesty's report, but has been debating the abolition of the penalty, while Indonesia has more than 300 people on death row. Neither country executed anyone in 2018.
Source: smh.com.au, James Massola, July 29, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde