Death Penalty May No Longer Be Mandatory For Drug And Homicide Cases In Singapore

SINGAPORE, July 10 (Bernama) -- Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has proposed giving the courts discretionary powers in imposing the death penalty for drug traffickers when two specific and tightly defined conditions are met. Teo, who is also Minister for Home Affairs, said the drug situation remains a serious threat. "We therefore need to maintain severe penalties for drug trafficking, including the mandatory death penalty for drug traffickers, in most circumstances. "However, when two specific, tightly-defined conditions are both met, we propose to make the death penalty for trafficking no longer mandatory, but to be imposed at the discretion of the courts," he said in the Parliament on Monday. The government will change the law, such that the mandatory death penalty will not be applied in two types of cases: firstly, where a drug trafficker only played the role of a courier, and the trafficker had substantively cooperated with the police or had a mental disability. Meanwhile, Minister For Law K Shanmugam has similarly proposed giving the courts the discretion to order life imprisonment or the death penalty for homicide offences other than the most serious form of murder, intentional killing. He said the Government’s strong stance on crime has helped Singapore keep the crime rate in the island republic one of the lowest in the world. "This must be preserved to ensure the safety and security of Singapore," he said. Shanmugam, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs, said the mandatory death penalty will continue to apply to the most serious form of murder, intentional killing. He said offenders who intend to cause the death of their victims ought to be punished with the most severe penalty, and the law ought to provide the most powerful deterrent against such offences. Other categories of murder could be committed with different degrees of intention and under a variety of situations that may not deserve the ultimate punishment. In such cases, he said the courts will be given the discretion to order either life imprisonment or the death penalty. -- BERNAMA