Govt knew Yong could escape death penalty
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| Mr Yong Yun Leong (centre), brother of convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Yong Vui Kong, presents a petition to a policeman at the Istana on Aug 24, 2010, calling on President SR Nathan to spare Yong's life after he was sentenced to death for trafficking heroin in 2008. Photo: SingaPolitics |
Saturday November 16, 2013: THE Singaporean government was aware that drug mule Yong Vui Kong could escape the gallows when it proposed lifting the mandatory drug penalty, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam.
But it went ahead with the changes for the benefit of the wider society, he told reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of Commonwealth foreign ministers here on Thursday.
“We were certainly aware of the possibility that he could be one of those to benefit from the changes because we know that he had given some information which led to the arrest of someone else more senior in the hierarchy,” Shanmugam said.
“It was a case that seemed to fit with the changes we were making, but we made those changes as they were in the interest of society as a whole.”
The minister was responding to a question on whether the high-profile nature of the Malaysian’s fight against the death penalty was a factor in his resentencing.
Earlier on Thursday, Yong, 25, became the first convicted drug trafficker to be given a chance under the new law. He was resentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane by the High Court.
Judges now have the discretion to impose life terms and caning on drug couriers who substantively assist the Central Narcotics Bureau.
Shanmugam said that the lifting of the mandatory drug penalty would provide an incentive for drug couriers to help the authorities nab bigger fish.
“If they know that the more they tell us, the more certainty they will face the death penalty, they will not cooperate,” he noted.
— The Straits Times / Asia News Network
Courtesy: The Star Online
