SINGAPORE : Convicted drug trafficker Yong Vui Kong's appeal against the death penalty was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Friday.
Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Justice Andrew Phang and Justice V K Rajah ruled that Yong's lawyer had failed to prove that the mandatory death penalty for certain drug offences was unconstitutional.
The 21-year-old Malaysian had brought in 47 grammes of heroin in June 2008.
Yong can still appeal to the President for clemency.
Yong was sentenced to death in November and was to be hanged last December.
But days before the sentence was to be carried out, his lawyer successfully sought a stay of execution from the High Court.
Court of Appeal has rejected Yong Vui Kong’s appeal against his death sentence. Vui Kong’s lawyer, M. Ravi, is applying for time to present a clemency petition. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal has closed off further arguments and the Mandatory Death Penalty will stay.
Executions by hanging are carried out by the State usually at 6am on Fridays. The death sentence could be carried out next Friday, 21st May.
The Court of Appeal reserved its judgement on Mar 15, 2010. It delivered its judgement today at 11am. See here for a timeline of articles/posts/videos on Vui Kong’s case. Read also these two news articles from 2005: The precision of ritual in the gallows’ shadow and Singapore accused of hypocrisy on drug stance.
No comments:
Post a Comment