In Singapore, two men were hanged on Thursday morning. The Malaysian Kalwant Singh and the Singaporean Norashee Bin Gous were arrested nine years ago and then sentenced for trafficking 120g and 60g of heroin. Singapore remains one of the rare countries in the world to be able to execute a man from 15 grams of drugs. And on death row, it is above all the last links in the drug trade that we find.
With our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur,
It has become a ritual in Kuala Lumpur, before each hanging of a Malaysian in Singapore, anti-death penalty activists hold a candlelight vigil. They repeat the same thing each time, as the profiles of the convicts are so similar: coming from precarious backgrounds, often in debt, arrested for a few grams of drugs. After Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian hanged last March for three tablespoons of heroin, here comes the turn of Kalwant Singh, Malaysian arrested with 60 grams of diamorphine on him. For Dobby Chew of the Asian Anti-Death Penalty Network, the story stutters: These people are not the ones Singapore says they condemn, they are not drug lords, but mules. So what is the real purpose of the death penalty in Singapore? Kill people or stop the drug trade ? »
If the convictions of these last links in the drug trade follow one another, the pressure on those who try to help those sentenced to death in Singapore increases, warns Dobby Chew, recalling that the last lawyer to have defended a sentenced to death on appeal was punished witha fine of 14,000 euros for obstruction of justice, in May 2022. An unfortunately effective repressive lever, he regrets. ” For a lawyer starting out, 14,000 euros is a lot of money. And if you’re a more experienced lawyer, are you willing to risk your reputation with the bar association when you’re convicted yourself for losing a case on top of that? he says.
Cooperation with the police
Kalwant Singh, hanged at dawn on Thursday July 7, thus defended himself at his last hearing, unable to find or pay a lawyer. His case, however, challenged many observers, Dobby Chew the first. He recalls a peculiarity of the death penalty in Singapore: “ In 2013, the law changed a little, now allowing an alternative sentence to the death sentence, he develops. If you are arrested with drugs, but do not use them yourself, or sell them, you can get a life sentence and beatings, provided you help the police,” recalls the activist.
This is what Kalwant did in detention by calling the person who gave him the drugs to arrange a meeting with him, so that the police could then identify him and arrest him, according to him. “ But at the time of the meeting, the police saw no one and therefore accused Kalwant of having scuttled the operation. Their argument was that the phone call was made in Tamil, the language in which Kalwant used to communicate with this man, and since none of the policemen spoke Tamil, Kalwant had to warn him. It is worrying because it is surprising that there was no one assisting the police speaking Tamil because there is a Tamil community in the Singaporean population and surely police officers speaking this language, then, because, to my knowledge, the phone call was not recorded to then verify what had been said, and finally because Kalwant collaborated and I do not think it was not his power to guarantee that his interlocutor would come for sure “says Mr. Chew.
Executed after nine years in prison, Kalwant leaves behind a family that has tried everything to help him, especially financially. ” My grandfather pushed all the limits to help his son. He never stopped working, even for a single day, even when he was sick. And when he died, his taxi’s odometer read 820,000 kilometers. All these kilometers were to help Kalwant by raising as much money as possible, and also to go see him, as soon as he could, living more than 500 kilometers from his prison. recalls Kalwant’s niece, Kellvina. Visits during which father and son will never have been able to take each other in their arms, because it is forbidden for families and death row inmates to touch each other, for security reasons, assures Singapore.