🧵 A flurry of execution notices have been issued these past few weeks. It is of course horrific every time a notice is delivered to a death row prisoner and their family, but what’s especially troubling in these cases is that all these prisoners are currently party to a joint application to the court, filed even before the first execution notice was issued.
[2] The Transformative Justice Collective has so far heard of four execution notices issued since 12 April. In two of these cases, executions have been stayed: one family was contacted by the prison a day or two before the scheduled execution to say it would be put on hold after all due to ongoing proceedings.
[3] Another prisoner was also given reprieve for now, possibly because of the same application. That still leaves two prisoners at risk of imminent execution, with one hanging potentially as soon as Monday.
[4] We do not know why the state is so adamant on proceeding with executions for prisoners who are party to an ongoing application. They should have known about the application weeks ago; the notices should never have been issued. All the more so after the Court issued a stay with regard to the first execution—any further notices planned should have been withdrawn.
[5] We are also aware of effort by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to further expedite the joint proceedings beyond timelines that are already unusually tight. This is no mundane administrative hiccup; these are human lives we’re talking about.
[6] Singapore’s bloodthirsty drug control regime continues to make a mockery of life, and the state refuses an honest reckoning with the immeasurable human cost of these cruel laws, from the families that are devastated to the torturous conditions prisoners suffer on death row.
The only way to protect the lives of the over 50 people on death row is by declaring a moratorium on the use of capital punishment in Singapore.
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