Highlights
TAIWAN We have worked with the Taiwan Alliance Against the Death Penalty and leading constitutional lawyers on issues relating to the application of the death penalty. In particular, we have looked at the safety of convictions where mental health issues arise and the effect of Taiwan’s endorsement of the ICCPR. We have also
held seminars on the application of the death penalty and sentencing principles in capital cases. We understand that judges are considering steps that will restrict the implementation of the death penalty in future cases.
MAURITIUS In Mauritius we successfully challenged the constitutionality of
a mandatory sentence of penal servitude for life before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Mauritius’ highest court. The Privy Council found that the absence of any provision allowing for the possibility of release was manifestly disproportionate and arbitrary. In this particular case, the appellant had been subjected to an unconstitutional
sentence of death, kept on death row in breach of the Constitution for nearly ten years and was then subjected to an unconstitutional sentence of penal servitude. His appeal was allowed.
MALAYSIA We are assisting lawyers in Malaysia who seek to challenge the continued application of the mandatory death penalty.
At the time of writing, a petition to the President seeking clemency has been submitted on behalf of Vui Kong in order to preserve his life. During the currency of the litigation, there has been an unoffi cial stay of executions pending the determination of these important constitutional issues. This is refl ected in the Singapore Prison Service Annual Report for 2010 which reveals that no executions have been carried out last year in Singapore.
The DPP’s Parvais Jabbar (left) with Edward Fitzgerald QC (second left), M. Ravi and John Jones at court in Singapore in 2010
SINGAPORE In the last few years we have assisted M.Ravi, attorney at law in Singapore, in bringing a series of constitutional challenges on behalf of Yong Vui Kong, a young Malaysian national convicted of drug traffi cking and sentenced to death. He was 19 years old at the time he was charged and had no previous convictions.
In May 2010, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal which challenged the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty for drugs. A further appeal was mounted, challenging the exercise of clemency and the prerogative of mercy by the President in death penalty cases. In a judgment delivered on 4 April 2011, the Court of Appeal, whilst accepting that rules of natural justice do apply to the actions of the Executive when exercising clemency, held that no breach occurred in Vui Kong’s case. These decisions have failed to follow the international trend of recent cases in other parts of the world regarding the same constitutional protections.
The case of Alan Shadrake In November 2010, Alan Shadrake, a British investigative journalist, was convicted by the High Court of Singapore of contempt of court and sentenced to eight weeks in jail following allegations he made in his book, Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore in the Dock, about the death penalty in Singapore. The book includes interviews with the former boss at Singapore’s Changi Prison, who he reports executed about 1,000 prisoners between 1959 and 2006.
The DPP has assisted M. Ravi in this case at both trial and appeal. Mr Shadrake was convicted of scandalising the judiciary and in May 2011, his appeal was dismissed. He served five weeks in a Singapore jail. That Singapore will punish the author of a book criticising the criminal justice system by preventing fair comment of the judiciary on sensitive subjects such as the death penalty is of concern. Even more worrying is that Singapore has failed to deal with the disturbing issues raised in Mr Shadrake’s book, namely the possible execution of the innocent and discrimination in the use of the death penalty.
The Death Penalty Project: 2006 – 2011 report 19
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