Pubdate: Fri, 08 Jun 2001
Source: Star, The (Malaysia)
Copyright: 2001 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com.my
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/922
Author: AFP

83% OF SINGAPOREANS SUPPORT DEATH PENALTY

SINGAPORE: An overwhelming 83% of Singaporeans have voted to retain the 
death penalty, in a poll coinciding with a woman's desperate plea to save 
her drug-addict brother from the gallows.

The on-line poll by the human rights organisation Think Centre, which 
opposes capital punishment, asked one question: "Do you support the death 
penalty in Singapore?"

By yesterday, the end of the first week of the poll, 314 of the 377 
responses said yes.

Voters appeared unswayed by the Think Centre's argument that the death 
penalty "is an inherently unjust and arbitrary punishment, however heinous 
the crime."

The poll, which will continue for another week, was started after the civil 
rights group published a copy of a clemency plea to President S.R. Nathan 
by a Yasmin Mustaffah whose brother Zulfikar has been sentenced to death on 
drugs charges.

In Singapore, death by hanging is mandatory for drug trafficking, murder, 
treason and certain firearms offences, including discharging a firearm 
during a crime.

In the past decade 340 people have been put to death, most for drug 
offences, giving the country of 3.1 million people "possibly one of the 
highest execution rates in the world, relative to its population," 
according to Amnesty International.

Think Centre said it raised the issue because there is no public debate 
about the use of the death penalty "as a violation of the right to life and 
the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth