Singapore | Yong Vui Kong lives on, 15 years after last-minute appeal saved him from the gallows

SINGAPORE: Yong Vui Kong is alive and well, though still incarcerated, as he sees the 15th year since a last-minute appeal saved his life from the gallows.

Vui Kong’s story was well publicized after he was arrested for possession of 47.27 grams of heroin. This occurred in 2007 when the Malaysian was only 19 years old.

He received the death penalty and was scheduled for judicial execution on Dec 2, 2009.

However, two days before that date, his case was taken up by human rights lawyer M Ravi, who was able to obtain a stay of execution.

RELATED | My journey with Vui Kong: M Ravi

Thus began a nearly four-year battle. Unlike the vast majority of death row cases, Vui Kong’s death penalty was lifted on Nov 14, 2013.

His sentence was reduced to life imprisonment and caning, and there is a possibility that he could be released on parole after serving 20 years in prison.

Now 36, Vui Kong has been at Changi Prison since June 12, 2007, which means he has spent nearly half his life in jail and will be eligible for a parole hearing in June 2027.

However, by all accounts, he is no longer the rebel he had been in his youth. He is now a devout Buddhist and has said he wanted to counsel young people about drugs during his incarceration.

Who is Yong Vui Kong?

Growing up in a poor family in Sabah, with only his mother supporting him and his siblings, Yong Vui Kong moved to Kuala Lumpur when he was just 14 years old.

He was forced to fend for himself and quickly fell in with the wrong crowd, ending up delivering “gifts,” which turned out to be drugs.

He later went back and forth between Malaysia and Singapore with these “gifts” until he was caught by Singaporean authorities in 2007.

Under the law, his crime should have gotten him the death penalty. Due to his age, Justice Choo Han Teck, the judge at his trial, asked the prosecution to consider reducing the charge, which was declined.

Since Vui Kong asked his original lawyer to withdraw his appeal, when M Ravi took over his case, he applied to have the appeal restored, which the Court of Appeal later did.

During the years when Mr Ravi made various applications on Yong’s behalf, changes occurred in Singapore’s mandatory death sentence laws.

By mid-2012, the government agreed for prisoners on death row for drug trafficking and murder offences to apply for their sentences to be reduced to life in jail, especially for those who could prove they had only been drug couriers, had impaired mental responsibility, or could help officials in the fight against drugs.

Vui Kong, who had been a courier who helped the authorities in their anti-trafficking endeavours, was the first drug trafficker sentenced to death who had his sentence reduced to life imprisonment and caning.

Source: theindependent.sg, Anna Maria Romero, May 23, 2024

_____________________________________________________________________

Twitter/X | Facebook | Telegram | Contact Us

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

— Oscar Wilde

Tennessee executes Harold Wayne Nichols

Thirty-seven years after confessing to a series of rapes and the murder of Karen Pulley, Nichols expressed remorse in final words Strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution Thursday morning, Harold Wayne Nichols made a final statement. “To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry,” he said, according to prison officials and media witnesses. “To my family, know that I love you. I know where I’m going to. I’m ready to go home.”

China | Former Chinese senior banker Bai Tianhui executed for taking US$155 million in bribes

Bai is the second senior figure from Huarong to be put to death for corruption following the execution of Lai Xiaomin in 2021 China has executed a former senior banker who was found guilty of taking more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$155 million) in bribes. Bai Tianhui, the former general manager of the asset management firm China Huarong International Holdings, was executed on Tuesday after the Supreme People’s Court approved the sentence, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Iran | Child Bride Saved from the Gallows After Blood Money Raised Through Donations, Charities

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); December 9, 2025: Goli Kouhkan, a 25-year-old undocumented Baluch child bride who was scheduled to be executed within weeks, has been saved from the gallows after the diya (blood money) was raised in time. According to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency , the plaintiffs in the case of Goli Kouhkan, have agreed to forgo their right to execution as retribution. In a video, the victim’s parents are seen signing the relevant documents. Goli’s lawyer, Parand Gharahdaghi, confirmed in a social media post that the original 10 billion (approx. 100,000 euros) toman diya was reduced to 8 billion tomans (approx. 80,000 euros) and had been raised through donations and charities.

Who Gets Hanged in Singapore?

Singapore’s death penalty has been in the news again. Enshrined in law in 1975, a decade after the island split from Malaysia and became an independent state, the penalty can see people sentenced to hang for drug trafficking, murder or firearms offenses, among other crimes. Executions have often involved trafficking under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with offenses measured in grams. Those executed have included people from low-income backgrounds and foreign nationals who are sometimes not fluent in English, according to human rights advocates such as Amnesty International and the International Drug Policy Consortium.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog