A Malaysian national on death row, Kalwant Singh, who argued before the Court of Appeal on Wednesday (July 6) for a stay of execution, asking that his criminal appeal be reopened, is set to be executed as planned after the court dismissed his appeal.
Malaysian human rights and law reform NGO Lawyers for Liberty tweeted at 4:46 pm on Wednesday afternoon, “Kalwant Singh’s final stay of execution application has just been dismissed by the Spore Court of Appeal. He will be executed tomorrow morning.”
Kalwant Singh’s final stay of execution application has just been dismissed by the Spore Court of Appeal. He will be executed tomorrow morning.
— Lawyers for Liberty (@lawyers4liberty) July 6, 2022
His sister was informed last week that the death sentence on Kalwant was scheduled for July 7th.
On July 5, the Central Narcotics Bureau confirmed this, adding that a Singaporean national is slated for judicial execution on July 7 as well.
“The capital sentences of death imposed on Kalwant Singh A/L Jogindar Singh (“Kalwant”) and Norasharee Bin Gous (“Norasharee”) are scheduled to be carried out on 7 July 2022,” CNB wrote.
Kalwant, now 31, was convicted and sentenced to death on Oct 24, 2013, for trafficking 60.15 grams of diamorphine.
He was only 23 at the time of his arrest.
Lawyers for Liberty said in a statement last week that Kalwant “has always maintained that he never knew that the bundles he was carrying were drugs. He was still convicted, mainly on the testimony of a co-accused person.”
On July 1, activist Kokila Annamalai posted about Norasharee, Kalwant’s co-accused, “Many who’ve paid attention to Norasharee’s case believe his conviction is unsafe because he was found guilty almost solely based on the testimony of Yazid, who himself escaped the death penalty by pointing a finger at Norasharee and Kalwant.
This got Yazid a certificate of cooperation from the AGC. Yazid’s testimony led to both Kalwant and Norasharee’s convictions, but especially in Norasharee’s case, there was little other evidence and the case turned on Yazid’s testimony.”
Yesterday, Ms Annamalai wrote in a Facebook post that Kawlant would represent himself in his appeal, and invited the public to support him.
“Kalwant meant it when he said he would fight till the noose is around his neck. The phrase that the Malaysian Indian guys on death row use to cheer each other on when one of them brings a challenge before the court, is a line from Tamil cinema superstar Rajinikanth – ‘paakathaana pora, intha kaaliyoda aatatha!’
It loosely translates to, ‘Now you’ll see, the dance of Kali!’ Kali is the goddess of death, time and change.’
We don’t know if Kalwant will win tomorrow, but what I know is this – if prisoners on death row, who are among the most voiceless in our society, insist on using what little voice they have till the very end, then we have no excuse not to use ours – steadily, fearlessly, collectively.” /TISG
Singapore Government urged to halt execution of M’sian Kalwant Singh scheduled for hanging on July 7