[Deathpenalty] URGENT ACTION: Singapore - IMMINENT EXECUTION - all appeals by 26 January

[Rick Halperin]

PUBLIC          AI Index: ASA 36/001/2007
                19 January 2007

Further Information on UA 90/06 (ASA 36/003/2006, 13 April 2006) -- Death
Penalty and new concern: Imminent Execution

SINGAPORE       Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi (m) aged 21, Nigerian citizen
        Okele Nelson Malachy (m) aged 33, reportedly from South Africa

Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi is now scheduled to be executed by hanging on 26
January.

He was arrested at Changi Airport on 27 November 2004, and was charged
under the Misuse of Drugs Act with transporting 727.02 grams of heroin
into Singapore. A death sentence is mandatory for anyone convicted of
trafficking in more than 15 grams of heroin.

The judge who convicted Tochi appears to have accepted that he might not
have realised the substance he was carrying was heroin. The verdict stated
that, "There was no direct evidence that he knew the capsules contained
diamorphine [heroin]. There was nothing to suggest that [Mr] Smith (who
gave Tochi the pills to transport) had told him they contained
diamorphine, or that [Tochi] had found that out of [sic] his own."

Tochi lost his appeal against a mandatory death sentence at the Court of
Appeal on 16 March 2006, and the President is reported to have rejected a
clemency appeal.

Okele Nelson Malachy, who was convicted with him, has not yet had a date
set for his execution.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
There is usually little public debate in Singapore about the death
penalty, partly as a result of tight government controls on the press and
civil society organisations. In his report to the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights on 24 March 2006, the Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, wrote that:

"Measures taken by the Government of Singapore suggest an attempt to
suppress public debate about the death penalty in the country. For
example, in April 2005, the Government denied a permit to an Amnesty
International official to speak at a conference on the death penalty
organized by political opposition leaders and human rights activists... If
public opinion really is an important consideration for a country, then it
would seem that the Government should facilitate access to the relevant
information so as to make this opinion as
informed as possible."

The UN Special Rapporteur has previously called for the death penalty to
be abolished for drug-related offences and has argued that the fact that
the death sentence in these cases is mandatory is a violation of
international legal standards. However, following a national and
international campaign for clemency for Shanmugam s/o Murugesu and Van
Tuong Nguyen, who had both been sentenced to death for drug-related
offences, activists in Singapore claim the debate in 2005 had been the
most prominent in possibly four decades (See UA 104/05, ASA 36/001/2005,
29 April 2005 and UA 279/05, ASA 36/003/2005, 24 October 2005).

Singapore, with a population of just over four million, is believed to
have the highest per capita execution rate in the world. More than 420
people have been executed since 1991, the majority for drug trafficking.
The Misuse of Drugs Act provides for a mandatory death sentence for at
least 20 different offences and contains a series of presumptions which
shift the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defence. The
Singapore government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is
not a human rights issue.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as a
violation of one of the most fundamental of human rights: the right to
life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and there
is no escaping the risk of error, which can lead to the execution of
innocent people.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible,
in English or your own language:
- urging the authorities to reconsider granting clemency in the case of
Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, and commute his death sentence;
- urging them to impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to
complete abolition, in line with the April 2005 UN Commission on Human
Rights (UNCHR) resolution on the question of the death penalty;
- noting that the UNCHR has urged states which still maintain the death
penalty not to impose it as a mandatory sentence, or for crimes without
lethal or extremely grave consequences.

APPEALS TO

Prime Minister
LEE Hsien Loong
Prime Minister's Office
Istana, Orchard Rd
Singapore 238823
Fax:            +65 6332 8983
Email:          lee_hsien_loong at pmo.gov.sg
Salutation:     Dear Prime Minister

Minister of Law
Prof. S. Jayakumar
Ministry of Law
100 High Street
The Treasury #08-02
Singapore 179434
Fax:            +65 6332 8842
Email:          jayakumar_s at mfa.gov.sg
Salutation:     Dear Minister

Attorney General
Chan Sek Keong
Attorney General's Chambers
1 Coleman Street #10-00
Singapore 179803
Fax:            +65 6332 5984
Email:          agc at agc.gov.sg
Salutation:     Dear Attorney General

COPIES TO: diplomatic representatives of Singapore accredited to your
country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 26 January 2007.