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Umej Bhatia also said that reports about reprisals against legal counsel representing the death row inmates as cited by the human rights experts were “baseless and false”.
On May 12, the experts, who are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, condemned the execution of Malaysian Nagaenthran Dharmalingam in April and Singaporean Abdul Kahar Othman in March for drug-related offences. Nagaenthran was said to be mentally disabled.
They also called on the Singapore authorities to halt plans to execute another Malaysian, Datchinamurthy Kataiah, who is on death row, also for drug-related offences.
In a statement, Bhatia said that all criminal proceedings in Singapore were conducted with due process before an “impartial and independent judiciary”. He said the Singapore High Court would not record a finding of guilt in a capital case unless the accused was tried and the public prosecutor proved its case at the trial with evidence.
“Accused persons can only be convicted and sentenced to the death penalty if their guilt has been proven in accordance with the law,” he said.
“Singapore is known for our fair and impartial criminal justice system, and independent and effective judiciary. We were ranked first in criminal justice within the East Asia and Pacific region, and seventh worldwide in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2021.”
He also dismissed the UN experts’ allegation of discriminatory treatment of individuals belonging to minorities currently on death row in Singapore for drug-related offences, such as Datchinamurthy.
Stating that Singapore’s laws applied equally to all, he said those who broke the laws were not subjected to different treatment based on race or nationality.
While the UN experts called on Singapore to impose a moratorium on the death penalty as they claimed the continued use of capital punishment for drug-related crimes ran contrary to international law, Bhatia said there was no international consensus against the use of the death penalty “when it is imposed according to the due process of law”.
The experts also said states that had not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the “most serious crimes”, and that under international law, only crimes of extreme gravity involving intentional killing can be considered as “most serious”.
However, Bhatia said there was “no explicit definition” under international law or international consensus on what constitutes “most serious crimes”.
“Every country has the sovereign right to determine its own criminal justice system, considering its own circumstances and in accordance with its international law obligations,” he said.
“This right should be respected.”
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