KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore has kicked its death row machinery into overdrive post-Covid-19 while continuing to silence anti-death penalty activists leading up to its 2023 presidential election, said Human Rights Watch.
In the World Report 2024, the watchdog slammed the island republic for carrying out its highest number of executions in more than a decade while censoring independent reporting.
As of November 2023, Singapore has executed 16 people for drug-related offences since executions resumed.
On April 26, Tagaraju Suppia was executed for his involvement in the trafficking of 1kg of cannabis in 2013. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), issued an urgent call to not proceed with the execution on the grounds that the penalty was not appropriate for a drug trafficking offence and was out of line with “international norms and standards”.
During one week between July and August 2023, Singapore conducted three back-to-back executions, including of Saridewi Djamani, the first woman to be executed in the country in almost two decades.
“Singapore reversed the Covid-19 hiatus on executions, kicking its death row machinery into overdrive,” said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.
“The government’s reinvigorated use of the death penalty merely highlighted its disregard for human rights protections and the inherent cruelty of capital punishment.”
The watchdog also said the Singaporean government targeted independent media outlets with broad and restrictive laws that grant the authorities highly discretionary powers to censor online content.
In July, the government enacted the Online Criminal Harms Act. The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), enacted in 2019, also gives the government broad discretionary powers to censor online content.
“The authorities repeatedly harassed and targeted The Online Citizen and its chief editor, Terry Xu, for reporting critically on the government. In April, a court fined Xu S$18,000 (RM62,822) for contempt of court.
“In September, The Online Citizen moved its operations out of Singapore because of the government’s harassment via the courts,” read the report.
In June, the authorities used the Pofma against the independent media outlet Asia Sentinel for a May 24 article about retaliation against a Singaporean whistleblower. When Asia Sentinel refused to publish the Pofma notice, authorities blocked the website in Singapore.
Meanwhile, the Hostile Information Campaigns provisions of the Foreign Interference (Counter-Measures) Act (Fica) provide broad powers to the home minister to require the removal or disabling of online content, publication of mandatory messages drafted by the government, banning of apps from being downloaded in Singapore, and disclosure of information by internet and social media companies.
The government can also designate individuals as “politically significant persons” who can be required to follow strict limits on receiving funding and to disclose all links with foreigners.
As for freedom of expression, Singapore was also criticised for its Public Order Act, which requires a police permit for any “cause-related” forms of assembly in public spaces. The police have sweeping powers to reject permit applications on political grounds.
In March, the Singaporean High Court suspended the law licence of human rights lawyer, M. Ravi. The court found he had undermined the integrity of the judiciary through his criticism of the attorney-general, who reinstated the death penalty for Gobi Avedian, a Malaysian whom Ravi was representing in court.
In a letter to the Singaporean government made public in January 2023, Mary Lawlor, the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders, expressed deep concern about government suppression and intimidation against human rights activists Kirsten Han and Rocky Howe for their advocacy opposing the death penalty in Singapore. – January 12, 2024