Singapore invokes 'fake news' law after executioner claims 'brutal' hanging tactics used in botched executions

The execution scene. Screenshot from "Apprentice" by Boo Junfeng (2016)

Human Rights Watch says Singapore is extremely secretive about how many executions it carries out

Singapore has used its controversial 'fake news' legislation to try to suppress claims that death row prisoners are sometimes kicked to death to ensure their necks snap during botched hangings.

A former executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison has alleged that he and other prison officers were secretly ordered to kick the back of the neck repeatedly if a prisoner did not die from the gallows.

The man — who remains anonymous — recently told a Malaysian human rights group that prison officers were given special training to carry out the execution method.

"He and other prison officers were instructed to carry out the brutal procedure whenever the rope breaks during a hanging, which happens from time to time," the group Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) said in a statement.

The group said if a hanging fails to kill a prisoner on death row, officers are quietly instructed to work in pairs to break the person's neck.

"The officers are told not to kick more than two times, so that there will be no tell-tale marks in case there is an autopsy," Lawyers for Liberty said.

The statement also claims that the Singapore Government approved of these "unlawful" methods in "flagrant breach" of the country's constitution.

The Singaporean Government has rejected the allegations as "preposterous" and denied that it has ever used such a method to kill a death row prisoner.

"For the record, the rope used for judicial executions has never broken before. This fact alone shows the falsity of LFL's allegations," the government said.

"These scurrilous allegations of misconduct follow a series of sensational and untrue stories previously published by LFL."

Singapore demands group brand its allegations 'fake news'

The government has also invoked its 'fake news' law to demand the human rights group and others attach 'fake news' labels to their webpages or Facebook posts.

Singapore last year promoted its Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act as a means to protect free speech and national security.

But opposition groups and rights activists have warned it will instead be used to silence criticism of the government.

"This is all about Singapore's effort to censor news that they don't like," said Phil Robertson from Human Rights Watch.

Lawyers for Liberty is standing by its statement and will refuse to attach a fake news label to its website.

"Our statement is based upon evidence from former and current Singapore prison officers. These are officers with impeccable service records," the organisation said.

"This attempt by Singapore to extend their jurisdiction to Malaysian citizens … is provocative, illegal and in breach of international law."

Malaysians are believed to make up the majority of death row prisoners in Singapore, most of them convicted for drug trafficking.

Human Rights Watch says it is difficult to know who or how many prisoners in Singapore face the death penalty.

"Singapore is probably the least transparent country we deal with when it comes to the death penalty," Phil Robertson said.

"There is no listing of the number of people who are put to death, and who they were. There's nothing."

Human Rights Watch has asked for local observers to be given access to prisons to witnesses execution procedures.

"Singapore is doing none of it. So their denials have to come with a grain of salt," Mr Robertson said.

Lawyers for Liberty has called for a moratorium on all executions in Singapore pending investigations into the allegations.

It has also demanded that Singapore reveal the number and identities of Malaysian prisoners who have been executed using kicking — instead of the proper gallows — in Changi.

In the wake of those statements, authorities in Singapore have ordered that the Lawyers for Liberty website be blocked.

Source: abc.net.au, Anne Barker, January 25, 2020

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Florida executes Dominick Occhicone

Florida executes 2 men in a day. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made Florida's death chamber the nation’s busiest at the end of his final term. STARKE, Fla. — Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history. Hours earlier, the state executed a former police officer convicted of killing a young girl.

Two Executions In Six Hours: Florida Set For Historical Double Execution Tuesday

Florida is preparing to execute two death row inmates on Tuesday, July 28, in an action that would mark the state’s first double execution in more than 60 years. Former police officer James Duckett, 68, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12 p.m., followed six hours later by 80-year-old Dominick Occhicone at 6 p.m. If carried out, these will mark the 39th and 40th executions under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the 11th and 12th in the state since the beginning of 2026. In response, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) has launched petition and letter-writing efforts asking DeSantis to halt both procedures. The group has organized two public vigils outside Florida State Prison in Raiford, set for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., contingent on whether stays are issued.

Florida | 49 years on death row, killer of Bonita Springs teen learns death date

A Fort Myers man on death row for nearly five decades learned his execution date as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his order Thursday, July 30. Harold Gene Lucas, then 24, shot and killed his 16-year-old girlfriend, Anthia Jill Piper in Bonita Springs on August 14, 1976. Lucas was 24 when he was charged in Piper's shooting death at her parents' home on Aug. 14, 1976. The execution is set for Sept. 1 in a state that has accelerated its pace under DeSantis the past two years, with a record of 19 executions in 2025. Piper was shot seven times by Lucas, who claimed to be intoxicated.

Florida executes James Duckett

Double execution: 1st of 2 inmates is put to death in Florida Florida has executed James Duckett, a 68-year-old former cop convicted of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1987. The state is set to execute an 80-year-old man 6 hours later for a 1986 murder. Florida carried out the 1st double execution in more than 60 years, executing former police officer James Duckett and later scheduling the execution of 80‑year‑old Dominick Occhicone, amid Governor Ron DeSantis’s aggressive push to increase death penalties in the state. Florida has put to death the 1st of 2 inmates in the state's 1st double execution in more than 60 years amid an aggressive death penalty push by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Florida | Former warden recalls botched electrocution that left him battling PTSD for 13 years and turned him into an abolitionist

Ron McAndrew anticipated it would be just another standard execution. He had been assigned to carry out the death of Cuban refugee Pedro Medina via electric chair within the confines of Florida State Prison. Fifteen years had passed since Medina's conviction for the murder of 52-year-old Dorothy James, and McAndrew's responsibility was to oversee the administration of lethal electrical currents to his brain. Having already supervised two previous executions using the identical procedure and raised in a community that strongly supported capital punishment, he expected a swift conclusion with justice delivered.

Iran erects iron gallows in Isfahan protest square

An iron gallows has been erected in an Isfahan square where protests erupted in January. Families of several of the 10 remaining prisoners sentenced to death have been summoned for farewell visits. An iron gallows erected in Ali-Khani Square in the central Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears that the regime is preparing to publicly execute protesters arrested during nationwide demonstrations in January. Sources who spoke with Iran International said large numbers of security forces had been deployed in the area, while the families of several prisoners sentenced to death had been summoned to the prison for farewell visits.

North Korea | 'I was only 9': North Korean defector recalls childhood memory of public execution

Kim Eun-joo was 9 years old when her teacher stopped their lesson and told the class to follow her outside. The children were marched to a public execution ground in North Korea. “I would cry even when our family dog died,” Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “But the first time I watched humans killing a human, I had no words for what I was feeling. It was the most brutal scene I have ever seen, in any movie or in real life.” The memory has stayed with her ever since. Now a human rights advocate after defecting from North Korea, Kim recently brought that childhood scene to the 9th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, where North Korea’s use of public executions and capital punishment was officially placed on the agenda for the first time.

Idaho | How Bryan Kohberger’s Guilty Plea Move Could Be His Death Sentence

If Bryan Kohberger successfully withdraws his guilty plea and goes to trial for the murders of four University of Idaho students, it could lead to him being sentenced to death, experts told Newsweek . Kohberger, 31, filed a handwritten petition on Monday from the Idaho Maximum Security Penitentiary, where he is serving four consecutive life sentences for the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in a rental home near the university's campus in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbings just over a year ago, a month before jury selection was set to start.

USA | What happens in the final weeks before an execution? These reporters were inside the room.

The journalists behind ‘The Last 12 Weeks’ earned extraordinary access to a death penalty defense team—and faced difficult ethical choices Many defense lawyers are naturally cagey. They work in a pressure cooker, protecting their clients’ rights while fighting for the best possible outcome. And arguably, the stakes can’t get any higher than trying to save a client’s life. So no, defense lawyers don’t usually invite journalists into strategy meetings. But that’s what happened when Marshall Project reporter Maurice Chammah and Serial Productions senior producer Alvin Melathe spent the final few months before a Texas execution embedded with a capital defense team.

19 July 1943 | Auschwitz's Largest Public Hanging: 12 Polish Prisoners Executed in Escape Reprisal

OSWIECIM, Poland — The SS carried out the largest public hanging in Auschwitz history on July 19, 1943, executing 12 Polish prisoners before other inmates as collective punishment for escapes and civilian contacts. The victims, all from the camp’s surveyors’ labor unit, were hanged on gallows built in front of the camp kitchen during an Auschwitz I roll call. The SS orchestrated this reprisal following prisoner escapes from the surveyors’ detail and unauthorized communication between inmates and civilians. Camp authorities used the recent escapes as a pretext to impose collective punishment.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog