HAUT-COMMISSARIAT AUX DROITS DE L’HOMME • OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS PALAIS DES NATIONS • 1211 GENEVA 10, SWITZERLAND Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment REFERENCE: UA SGP 3/2016: 18 May 2016 Excellency, We have the honour to address you in our capacity as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 26/12 and 25/13. In this connection, we would like to bring to the attention of your Excellency’s Government information we have received concerning the alleged scheduled execution of Mr. Kho Jabing, a 31-year-old Malaysian national, for unintentional homicide. According to the information received: On 30 July 2010, Mr. Kho Jabing was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. At the time the sentence was issued, Singaporean legislation imposed mandatory death sentence for all murder convictions. On 14 November 2012, legal reform (Penal Code Amendment Act 2012) allowed for the court’s discretion regarding the imposition of the death sentence in murder cases, keeping mandatory death penalty for ‘intentional’ murder only, and giving the courts the possibility to impose life imprisonment and caning for unintentional homicide. Following the change in legislation, the court substituted the death sentence against Mr. Kho Jabing for life imprisonment and 24 strokes of caning. The prosecutor appealed the decision and, on 14 January 2015, the Court of Appeal re- imposed his death sentence. Even though the court admitted that the evidence did not allow for the precise reconstruction of the killing, three of the five judges found that Mr. Kho Jabing’s actions showed “viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life”, making him deserve to be punished by death. Two of the five judges held that there was no evidence that Mr. Kho Jabning had hit the victim more than twice, making his disregard for life unproven, and therefore concluded that he should not be sentenced to death. Based on the disagreement among the judges, Mr. Kho Jabing’s defense appealed the sentence and, on 5 November 2015, the Court of Appeal of Singapore temporarily suspended the death sentence. On 5 April 2016, the Court rejected the appeal, stating that the disagreement among the judges did not merit the review of their decision, and lifted the suspension. The Government has informed Mr. Kho Jabing´s family that his execution is scheduled for 20 May 2016. We would like to express serious concern that the death penalty may be carried out against Mr. Kho Jabing, whose charges do not meet the threshold of “most serious crimes”. In view of the urgency of the matter, and of the irreversibility of the punishment of the death penalty, we call upon your Excellency’s Government as a matter of urgency to halt the execution of Mr. Kho Jabing, which on the facts available to us may constitute a violation of applicable international human rights standards, and thus an arbitrary execution. We further urge your Excellency’s Government to reinstate the official moratorium declared in 2011. Without making any judgment as to the accuracy of the information made available to us, the above allegations appear to be in contravention of the right of every individual to life, liberty and security as set out in article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We would like to draw the attention of your Excellency’s Government attention to article 1 of the 1984 United Nations Safeguards Protecting the Rights of those Facing the Death Penalty, which provides that capital punishment may only be carried out for the “most serious crimes”, a term which comprises only intentional acts with lethal or extremely grave consequences. The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has stated that “intentional” should be interpreted as premeditated and deliberate (E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.3). The full texts of the human rights instruments and standards recalled above are available on www.ohchr.org or can be provided upon request. 2 We are intending to publicly express our concerns in the near future as we are of the view that the information upon which the press release is going to be based is sufficiently reliable to indicate a matter warranting immediate attention. The press release will indicate that we have been in contact with your Excellency’s Government’s to clarify the issue/s in question. Your Excellency’s Government’s response to this communication will be made available in a report to be presented to the Human Rights Council for its consideration. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest consideration. Christof Heyns Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Juan E. Méndez Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 3 .