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17/06/2008
URGENT APPEAL: Lee Chez Kee (m), aged 37, Malaysian national
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AI
SINGAPORE
Lee Chez Kee (m), aged 37, Malaysian national
Lee Chez Kee, who was sentenced to death after an unfair trial, has exhausted his appeals and is in imminent danger of execution. The President still has the power to grant clemency.
Lee Chez Kee was sentenced to death for the 14 December 1993 murder of Professor Lee Kok Cheong. In Singapore a murder conviction carries a mandatory death sentence. He had escaped to Malaysia shortly after the murder, but was extradited in 2006. Amnesty International is opposed to any extradition, return or transfer of a person to where he or she faces the death penalty.
Lee’s appeal was based on the fact that the court had allowed the evidence against him to include statements made by his accomplice Too Yin Sheong at his own trial. Too had given six statements, claiming that he had been merely an onlooker while Lee carried out the murder. He was sentenced to death in 1998 and executed the following year. At Lee’s trial in 2006, all of Too’s statements were admitted as evidence.
A panel of three Court of Appeal judges voted two to one to reject his final appeal, on 12 May 2008. The dissenting judge, Choo Han Teck, wrote that in his view, Lee Chez Kee "ought to be retried" because "the danger of findings of fact being tainted by those untested and prejudicial statements are too great to be allowed to stand [in court]."
Although he voted to dismiss the appeal, Judge V K Rajah agreed with Judge Choo Han Teck that the trial judge had wrongly admitted Too’s statements. He also said that "the trial judge had failed to exercise due caution in giving weight to Too’s statements and had also failed to give due consideration to the prejudicial effect they had on [Lee's] case."
The third judge, Woo Bih Li, found that Too’s statements were "self-serving and not tested by cross-examination."
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The death penalty allows no escape from the risk of error, which can lead to the execution of an innocent person. The existence of mandatory sentences for certain crimes further exacerbates the inhumanity and injustice of this penalty, as it precludes judges from taking into account circumstances specific to an individual case or an individual defendant.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
There is very little public debate in Singapore about the death penalty, partly as a result of tight government controls on the press and civil society organisations. Official information about the use of the death penalty is partial and haphazard. Some, but by no means all, executions are reported in the press. The government does not normally publish statistics about death sentences or executions. Trials fall short of international human rights standards, with mandatory death sentences and presumption of guilt for capital offences. Possession of a certain amount of drugs leads to a presumption of involvement in drug trafficking, which carries a mandatory death sentence.
Singapore voted against the adoption of the UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty, on 15 November 2007. The vote went overwhelmingly in favour of the resolution; in 2008 the representative of Singapore questioned the virtue of continuing to debate the issue.
Singapore, with a population of just over four million, is believed to have the highest per capita execution rate in the world. The government has consistently maintained that the death penalty is not a human rights issue.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Using your own words, please choose a few of the suggestions below to create a personal appeal and send it as quickly as possible:
- urging the President to grant clemency to Lee Chez Kee and commute his death sentence;
- expressing concern that the sentence was imposed after an unfair trial;
- urging the President to impose a moratorium on executions, with a view to complete abolition of the death penalty, in line with the November 2007 UN General Assembly resolution;
- noting that the UNCHR has urged states which still maintain the death penalty not to impose it as a mandatory sentence;
- calling on the President to make full statistics on death sentences and the background of those on death row regularly available to the public.
APPEALS TO:
President:
His Excellency S R Nathan
Office of the President
Istana, Orchard Road
Singapore 0922
Fax: 011 656 735 3135
Email: s_r_nathan@istana.gov.sg
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Prime Minister:
Lee Hsien Loong
Office of the Prime Minister
Istana Annexe, Orchard Road
Singapore 0923
Fax: 011 656 732 4627
Email: lee_hsien_loong@pmo.gov.sg
Minister of Law:
Professor S. Jayakumar
Ministry of Law
100 High Street
The Treasury 08-02
Singapore 179434
Fax: 011 656 332 8842
His Excellency Mr Vanu Gopala MENON
High Commissioner for Singapore
c/o Permanent Mission to the U.N.
231 East 51st Street
New York, NY 10022, USA
Fax: (212) 826-2964
PLEASE SEND YOUR APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
_______________________________________
"If it weren't for AI, I would probably not be here.
When you raise your voice, you become a target.
But when those letters come, we can start working again.
Don't ever let anyone tell you a letter doesn't make a difference."
- Eugenia Monterrosa, Guatemala
________________________________________
Marilyn McKim & Adriana Salazar
Urgent Action Network Coordinators
Amnesty International Canada (ES)
14 Dundonald Street
Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1K2
Phone: 416-363-9933 ext 25
Fax: 416-363-3103
http://www.amnesty.ca/urgentaction
pdf version of appeal.
12:20 Posted by soci | Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Death Penalty, Singapore, Amnesty International, Appeal, Lee Chez Kee
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Comments
I agree that this individual needs a re-trial.
However, I believe the death penalty is JUST punishment for the crime of murder.
If anyone is writing (a good idea) to the president and/or the prime minister, write to support the death penalty for ONLY the crime of murder, proved in a court of law beyond all doubt.
Bleeding heart liberals attempt to make people feel guilty about "harsh" justice, and mostly have a weird belief that violent criminals deserve some form of "gentle approach" so that violent criminals can have a chance to "self-actualise" -- absolute bullshit IMO.
Violent crime needs to be PUNISHED. These liberals conveniently forget that real people -- the victims of crime -- are hurt and often killed by violent crime, the focus should be on recompensing and administering justice for the VICTIM, rather than getting all soft and gooey and diverting too much attention on the (so-called) "rights" of the convicted criminal.
There is absolutely no reason to get soft on violent crime and the perpetrators of those crimes -- murder, rape, armed robbery, extortion, kidnapping, child abuse, assault causing serious injury. Imagine if you or your loved ones were victims of violent crime. Surely as victims, you are entitled to JUSTICE -- i.e. to have the person who has violated your life charged and punished.
But no, not these days in too many of the industrialised democracies. The focus immediately goes to the low-life criminal, with absolutely no concern for the victims and the victims' families who have suffered and had their lives changed forever (in unpleasant ways).
Posted by: Matilah_Singapura | 18/06/2008
Thank you for educating me on this issue. I am the CIO of YOBI, and would be honored if you would contribute to our United Nations discussion forums. Our address is http://www.yobi.tv/yobiworld . We are hoping to create a truly international discussion of the issues that face our global community, and you can add important things to add to that discussion.
Posted by: Jen O'Meara | 19/06/2008