Drug mules no longer bound to die
City state's scrapping of mandatory death sentence for minor drug offences welcomed in some quarters; others want wider change
Human rights activists are applauding Singapore's decision this week to abolish the mandatory death sentence for low-level drug couriers, giving fresh hope to dozens of inmates awaiting execution.
Singapore's amendments to its drug law will help authorities dismantle narcotics networks from the top as they ease penalties on runners who provide information on these syndicates, a lawmaker said yesterday.
However, the nation will uphold the death penalty for those who manufacture and traffic drugs, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) said parliament had formally approved amendments enabling judges to commute death sentences under certain conditions.
Courts will have the discretion to sentence the offender to death or to life imprisonment with caning if the accused is only a courier and "substantively" co-operated with authorities or has a mental disability, the ministry said on its website.The concession also applies to some murder cases.
The changes "give enforcement agencies a lot more enforcement muscle to enable them to try to go up the drug supply chain", said Eugene Tan, a Singapore Management University assistant law professor and a non-elected lawmaker who has limited voting rights. "I think this is one attempt to move upstream to deal with the drug lords."