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S'pore anti-death penalty
group challenges Nigerian's execution
21 Jan
07
Press message on the pending hanging of
Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi in Singapore
It is with
great sadness that we compose this press message regarding the
death sentence on Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, to be hanged at dawn on
26th January after a lengthy, lonely and soul-destroying
imprisonment.
Tochi was arrested for allegedly carrying
heroin into Changi airport in November 2004. He was 19 years old
when he was arrested.
The court in Singapore delivered the
death sentence after a 13-day trial.
Tochi has been
waiting in maximum security section of Changi prison from 2004
until today. His family in Nigeria believed until July last year
that he was playing football for a Singapore football
team.
Tochi was indeed a champion footballer who played in
Nigerian state league championships. He claims he was tricked
into trafficking drugs to Singapore on the promise of being able
to play for a club here.
It is particularly disturbing to
note that trial judge himself raised reasonable doubts in Tochi's
case, mentioning that it was entirely possible that Tochi did not
know he was bringing in drugs to Singapore--before proceeding to
convict him and pass the mandatory death penalty.*
At a
time when the Singapore prison system has a renewed emphasis upon
rehabilitation, and when the Yellow Ribbon campaign asks us to
give even seasoned criminals a second chance, can we not find it
in our hearts to extend this to a person who--if he indeed is
guilty--made a desperate mistake at the age of 19?
The
death sentence for drug trafficking in Singapore continues to be
"mandatory", which means that judges are not able to
take into significance and mitigating circumstances (such as the
age and general naivity of the accused) when passing their
verdict.
And at a time when even the hangings of persons
responsible for mass killings and genocide, such as Saddam
Hussein and his cronies are being regarded with disgust by the
world at large; are seen as reproducing the criminal cruelty of
the original perpetrators, is it not time that we in Singapore
reconsider our stance on the repeated, mandatory hanging of
small-fry drug mules?
Signed,
Singapore
Anti Death Penalty Campaign
*
Tochi was arrested in Changi Airport in November 2004. He claims
he was carrying herbal medicine for a third party, at the behest
of his "friend", Mr Smith. According to Tochi, Mr Smith
befriended him months earlier and advised him to approach
football clubs in Singapore.
Against Tochi, the trial
judge, Mr Kan Ting Chiu, made the following finding at paragraph
42 of his judgment [2005] SGHC 233: "There was no direct
evidence that he knew the capsules contained diamorphine. There
was nothing to suggest that Smith had told him they contained
diamorphine, or that he had found that out of his own."
The
Singapore Anti Death Penalty Campaign (SADPC) comprises a
concerned group of Singaporeans from diverse backgrounds who have
come together over the issue of the Death Penalty. Through a
series of debates and events we hope to foster a public debate on
the practice of capital punishment in Singapore and throughout
the world.
Nigerian to hang
in Singapore after clemency rejected
The Associated
Press
19 Jan 07
Singapore was set to hang a 21-year-old
Nigerian convicted of heroin trafficking a week from Friday, a
human rights group said, urging Nigeria's government to
intervene.
Amara Tochi Iwuchukwu is to be executed Jan. 26
at Singapore's Changi Prison after the Southeast Asian country's
president rejected his clemency appeal, according to a statement
from Nigeria's nongovernment Civil Liberties Organization, or
CLO.
A letter from Singapore's Prisons Department informed
Iwuchukwu's family of the execution and said the department would
allow him extra visits in the three days before he is
executed.
His family lives in Nigeria.
Iwuchukwu
was caught after arriving from Dubai at Singapore's Changi
Airport in November 2004 with 100 capsules containing 727 grams
(26 ounces) of heroin, estimated by authorities to be worth 1.5
million Singapore dollars (US$970,000; €795,930).
The
rights group said that Iwuchukwu's trial was marked by
"irregularities," and that it has made several
unsuccessful appeals to the Nigerian government to intervene in
the matter.
"While the CLO recognizes the right of
the Singaporean government to punish any person within its
territorial jurisdiction for any act which constitutes an offense
in Singapore, we insist that international standards of justice
and due process of law must be observed," the statement
said.
Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry could not be
reached for comment Friday, and did not immediately respond to
e-mailed questions.
Also convicted and on death row in the
same case is Okeke Nelson Malachy, 35, a stateless African.
Malachy was arrested after his picture was shown to Iwuchukwu,
who identified him as the person to whom he was supposed to
deliver the drugs.
It was not immediately clear whether
Malachy's clemency appeal had also been rejected.
Singapore's
Prisons Department did not confirm the execution date when
contacted Friday. It had earlier said in an e-mailed response to
questions that "as a policy, Prisons Department does not
release information on when executions would be carried out prior
to an execution."
At the time of his arrest,
Iwuchukwu told narcotics officers the pills were African herbs
that he was supposed to give to a sick friend. He also told
officers that he came to try out for soccer teams playing in the
country's Singapore League.
Singapore has some of the
world's harshest drug laws, including a mandatory death penalty
for anyone found guilty of trafficking more than 15 grams (0.5
ounces) of heroin.
The city-state caused an outcry in
Australia in December 2005, when it executed a 25-year-old heroin
trafficker from that country despite numerous appeals from
Australia's government.
Human rights group Amnesty
International has said Singapore has the world's highest per
capita execution rate. The country's leaders say the tough laws
and penalties are an effective deterrent against a crimes that
ruin lives.
The Nigerian High Commission in Singapore
helped Iwuchukwu file the appeal for presidential clemency, and
is in regular contact with his family in Nigeria, a consular
officer said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
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