Group Singapore S Planned Execution Of Kalwant Injustice Against M Sians

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Rights group Sebaran Kasih is urging Malaysian leaders from all segments of society to voice out against the unjust execution of Kalwant Singh, scheduled at Singapore’s Changi Prison this Thursday, July 7.
Despite a strongly worded statement condemning Singapore’s execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam that was carried out in April, the city-state plans to proceed with the execution of 32-year-old Kalwant (above), who hailed from Cameron Highlands.
Sebaran Kasih urged all Malaysian political and business leaders, governmental bodies, and religious leaders to voice out against Kalwant’s imminent execution.
“This execution is not only injustice against Kalwant but also an injustice against Malaysians.
“We are urging the Malaysian government to strongly support Kalwant and use all diplomatic methods possible to stop this execution,” it said in a statement.
Describing Kalwant as an inmate who had spent more than nine years on death row, Sebaran Kasih said he had been subjected to solitary confinement in a tiny cell for excruciatingly long hours.
“The condition and size of the cell are unfathomable to us humans and are akin to an animal pen.
“His mental state had deteriorated even further due to 24 hours of incarceration during the movement control order,” read the statement.
On his sister’s first visit since the cross-border travel between Malaysia and Singapore reopened, Sonia Kaur noted that her brother’s behaviour had changed. He was quiet most of the time and unable to speak well.
Owing to the family’s financial constraints and the health condition of family members, visits from Cameron Highlands to the prison in Singapore had been limited but on her latest visit, Sonia could not even get Kalwant to make eye contact.
‘Kalwant was naïve and made a mistake’
Sebaran Kasih revealed that Kalwant was 23 years old when he was arrested in Singapore where he had secured a job.
“He had been too young and naïve to realise that one silly mistake could change his whole life where he now suffers the cruelties of solitary confinement and is facing execution in a few days,” it said.
Describing his case, the group said Kalwant’s co-accused was able to secure a certificate to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, which was denied for Kalwant.
The attorney-general had rejected Kalwant's appeal, adding that new evidence was necessary for a commuted sentence.
However, Kalwant and his family have been trying to get new evidence but to no avail.
“We, from Sebaran Kasih, would describe these systemic executions in Singapore as ‘ritualised killings’.
“We stress that there is always a chance for redemption and calling for the death penalty means there was no room for the offender to change or improve,” the statement declared.
‘UN should expel Singapore’
Sebaran Kasih had also reached out to the United Nations (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.
This desperate call comes in the wake of the execution of Nagaenthran on April 27, prior to which UN experts had called for a stay of his execution pointing out his intellectual disabilities.
The group of experts had also highlighted the apparent “alarming acceleration in execution notice” in Singapore since the start of the year.
Sebaran Kasih’s plea to the UN also attempts to spotlight the city-state for its ‘judicial cruelty’.
It further recommended that a monetary penalty be imposed against the country as well, for depriving the right to life to poor death row inmates and for abusing them.
“Therefore, we desperately and humbly call on Ravina to help these vulnerable people like Kalwant by recommending removing Singapore's membership in the United Nations,” urged the statement.
On May 12, a group of 11 UN experts condemned Singapore’s execution of Abdul Kahar Othman in March and Nagaenthran in April.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam was executed last AprilIn a joint statement, they called on Singapore to impose an immediate moratorium on the death penalty, saying that the continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes ran contrary to international law.
“States that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for ‘the most serious crimes’.
“Under international law, only crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing should be considered ‘most serious’.
“Drug offences clearly do not meet this threshold,” the group of UN experts argued.
Discriminatory treatment
The experts have also raised concerns about the discriminatory treatment of individuals belonging to minorities, such as Datchinamurthy Kataiah, currently on death row in Singapore for drug-related offences, and reports about reprisals against their legal counsels.
They also urged the government to halt any plan to execute Datchinamurthy and to instead commute his death sentence to prison terms, in accordance with international human rights law and standards.
“We reiterate that the mandatory use of the death penalty constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life since it is imposed without any possibility of taking into account the defendant’s circumstances or the circumstances of the particular offence,” the experts stated in a statement.
Singapore seemed to have reacted to this harsh international criticism by imposing hefty fines on Nagaenthran’s lawyers for filing unmeritorious applications.
Later in the same month, the republic’s Court of Appeal ordered M Ravi to bear 75 percent and Violet Netto to bear 25 percent of S$20,000 (RM64,000) payable to the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC).
Meanwhile, the Singapore government defended its actions, calling the death penalty "a vital component" of its criminal justice system, claiming it helps preserve its reputation as one of the safest countries.
It was reported that Singapore’s permanent representative to the UN Office in Geneva, Umej Bjatia attempted to defend against the country’s reprisals against legal counsels representing death row inmates as “baseless and false”. - Mkini

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