Singapore’s Court of Appeal dismisses Kalwant’s final bid to stay execution

 

Singapore’s Court of Appeal has dismissed Malaysian Kalwant Singh’s final attempt to stay his execution scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Singapore rights-based journalist Kirsten Han tweeted from the court that Kalwant's application had been dismissed and “barring a miracle, both he and Norasharee (Gous) will be executed at dawn in Changi Prison tomorrow morning”.

Norasharee is a Singaporean and Kalwant’s co-accused.

Kalwant was just 23 when he was arrested and has spent the majority of his adult life on death row.

His execution is just two months after the highly criticised execution of another Malaysian, Nagaenthran K Dharmalingam who was executed on April 27.

Singapore continues to execute death row inmates at an alarming pace this year, despite a strongly worded joint statement from 11 United Nations (UN) experts condemning the city-state’s execution of Singaporean Abdul Kahar Othman in March and Nagaenthran.

Han, in a Twitter thread, said a key part of Kalwant's application was challenging the fact that he wasn't given a Certificate of Substantive Assistance.

“He was recognised by the court as merely a drug courier; if he'd been given a certificate, he could live instead of getting a mandatory death sentence,” she tweeted.

Han further explained that in a previous ruling for another Malaysian death row prisoner in Singapore, the court said that the certificate could only be given if the information provided by an accused person was actually used by the narcotics police to disrupt drug trafficking activities.

Han deduced in her tweet that: “So it's not just about whether they (accused) cooperate with the authorities or not - it's whether the authorities actually used the information given.”

“They can only give what info they know; how and whether it's used is not something they can control. Yet their lives depend on it,” Han argued in a thread following the proceedings.

Co-accused testimony

Rights group Sebaran Kasih had in a statement on July 4, urged the UN Human Rights Office spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, to recommend the expulsion of Singapore from the intergovernmental organisation, on the grounds that it practices a cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment - the death penalty.

Describing Kalwant’s case, the group said his co-accused was able to secure a certificate to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, which was denied for Kalwant.

Kalwant, 31, was arrested for possessing 60.15g of diamorphine and trafficking 120.9g of diamorphine in 2013 and convicted in 2016 under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Lawyers For Liberty director Zaid Malek stated today that Kalwant had always maintained that he never knew that the bundles he was carrying contained drugs.

“He was still convicted mainly on the testimony of a co-accused person,” Zaid said in a statement on June 30.

Candlelight vigil for Kalwant

Also, Han, in her tweet, pointed out that the Central Narcotics Bureau could make claims about whether they used or did not use certain information however, there was no independent mechanism to check their claims.

“Ultimately, the crux of this Certificate of Substantive Assistance system is that human life is secondary to, and determined by, the goals and desires of the state.

“It is deeply abhorrent that this is how the Singapore state measures a human life,” she said in her tweet.

Malaysians, including members of the civil society movement, will gather outside the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur tonight to hold a candlelight vigil for Kalwant under the banner #SaveKalwant. - Mkini