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

California | Becerra vows to extend moratorium despite past support for capital punishment

SACRAMENTO—Democrat Xavier Becerra defended the death penalty while serving as California’s attorney general, a punishment his office actively sought in the case of a gunman convicted of an Orange County mass shooting, but as the front-running candidate for governor, he has vowed to block executions if elected in November. Becerra said he will extend the blanket reprieve for all death row inmates that Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted by executive order in 2019, saying he supported “moving our state away from a costly, flawed system that disproportionately impacts Black and brown communities and too often gets it wrong.”

Iran | Afghan Citizen Executed in Wheelchair Due to Severe Mobility Disability

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Iranian authorities have reportedly executed an Afghan citizen, identified as Valijan Nourzay, at the central prison in Rafsanjan, according to the human rights organization Hengaw. Hengaw said in a statement on Sunday, September 6, that Nourzay was executed early Wednesday last week at Rafsanjan Central Prison. According to the organization, Nourzay had a severe mobility disability and was executed while in a wheelchair. Hengaw, citing informed sources, reported that Nourzay had been pursued by Iranian authorities three years ago over an alleged murder. He was reportedly seriously wounded after Iranian security forces opened fire on him in Rafsanjan before being arrested and later sentenced to death.

Egypt TV presenter and 11 others sentenced to death in major drugs case

Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have been sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of drug trafficking and rape, while nine defendants received life sentences and seven were acquitted. Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging along with 11 other defendants after being found guilty in a drugs case involving a criminal gang accused of importing ingredients used to manufacture narcotics for sale.

He Spent 27 Years on Death Row as a Wrongfully Convicted Man. What Comes Next?

23-hour solitary confinement. 115-degree heat. Jimmie Duncan is haunted by the decades he spent in Louisiana’s Angola Prison—and how, even after being released, he still isn’t truly free. Jimmie “Chris” Duncan wiped the sweat off his forehead as he assessed his temporary home from the parking lot of a rundown motel in central Louisiana. Sure, there’s drug dealing and prostitution, he said on a recent summer afternoon. And he suspected his neighbors were cooking meth on a floor below the room he paid $350 a week to rent.

California | He spent 19 years on death row. His conversion to Judaism helped him endure

Johnny Morales struggled to find sleep. He dozed off for a few moments, but officers came to his death row cell and woke him a little after midnight. They needed to inventory and box up his belongings. He was leaving San Quentin. Hands cuffed behind his back, he walked across the empty upper yard in the dim gray hours before daylight. An officer walked alongside him step for step, black latex-gloved fingers holding onto Morales’s arm. For almost 20 years, Morales could only experience the world outside his 4-by-11 foot cell in the condemned housing unit like this—chained and escorted by officers. Security protocols required all death row residents be handcuffed or shackled any time they were out in open space with staff.

Ex-corrections officials urge governor to commute Kansas death sentences

Former Kansas corrections officials are urging Governor Laura Kelly to grant clemency to the state's death row inmates. Former Kansas Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz has several reasons why he thinks the state should abolish the death penalty. Werholtz, who served as secretary from 2002 to 2010 and returned on an interim basis in 2019, uses his discussions with peers and family members of victims as well as experiences of seeing wrongly convicted people getting exonerated as his guiding points.

Florida executes Harold Gene Lucas

Florida state officials executed 74-year-old Harold Gene Lucas by lethal injection on Tuesday evening, concluding a 50-year legal saga stemming from the 1976 murder of a 16-year-old girl in Bonita Springs. STARKE, Fla. -- A man convicted of killing a teenage girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends was put to death Tuesday in the first of three executions planned this month in Florida. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, authorities said. He was sentenced to death for the 1976 shooting attack on Jill Piper and the wounding of her friends, Richard Byrd Jr. and Terri Rice.

Arizona AG seeks execution date for man convicted in 1995 trooper killing

Trooper Bob Martin was killed during a traffic stop on the Beeline highway; execution for his killer could be as soon as January PHOENIX (AZFamily)—The Arizona Attorney General is asking for an execution date to be set for a man convicted in the killing of an Arizona State Trooper over 30 years ago. On Aug. 15, 1995, Trooper Bob Martin was shot and killed while performing a traffic stop along the Beeline Highway.

Florida set to carry out 14th execution this year in the nation's busiest death chamber

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl who rejected his romantic advances and wounding two of her friends is set to be executed Tuesday in the first of three lethal injections scheduled this month in the state. Harold Gene Lucas, 74, is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at 6 p.m. He would be the 14th prisoner put to death this year in Florida, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has already signed death warrants for two more executions set for later this September.

Inside and outside Oklahoma execution chamber, Tulsans stand on different sides of death penalty debate

Sheriff Vic Regalado and Father Bryan Brooks, pastor at the Church of Saint Benedict, are two men of influence in Tulsa County. They live different lives—one enveloped in faith, the other elected to lead a law enforcement agency of more than 600. Both were brought together by the death penalty. The men believe it is their duty to support families of victims but land on different sides of the aisle when it comes to executions. Regalado is in support of the death penalty, saying it is part of the criminal justice system and brings closure to the families of murder victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog