Malaysian drug pedlar sentenced
SINGAPORE: A Malaysian man convicted of drug trafficking has been
sentenced to hang in Singapore, according to court documents obtained by
AFP Friday.
Dinesh Pillai Raja Retnam was handed the death penalty Thursday in
the High Court, one week after his compatriot Yong Vui Kong exhausted
all judicial avenues to escape the gallows for committing the same
offence.
High Court Judge Chan Seng Onn said in his judgement that Dinesh was
guilty of trafficking 19.35 grams (0.68 ounces) of heroin into
Singapore.
Under Singapore’s tough anti-narcotics laws, anyone found guilty of
trafficking at least 15 grams of heroin will be sentenced to death which
is carried out by hanging.
“The accused is accordingly found guilty as charged. I convict him
and sentence him to death,” Chan wrote in the judgement. Dinesh was
caught by Singapore narcotics officers in 2009 with a “food” package
containing the heroin which he was promised $67 to deliver to a
unidentified contact in the city-state.
Last week, Singapore’s highest court rejected Yong’s final judicial
appeal against his death sentence for carrying 47 grams (1.65 ounces) of
heroin into the city-state in 2007.
Yong’s case had riled human rights activists in Singapore, who
organised public vigils as well as online appeals and petitions to
attempt to free the Malaysian youth, who was 19 when he committed the
crime.
Malaysian foreign minister Anifah Aman had also weighed in with a
letter to the Singapore government in July last year to plead for
clemency. Amnesty International, which has been critical of the wealthy
city-state’s use of the death penalty, said in its latest report that
Singapore handed down “at least eight death sentences” last year.
SINGAPORE, Friday, AFP |