S’pore launches death penalty survey as rights groups call for abolition

SINGAPORE: Singapore will gauge public attitudes towards the death penalty in a survey, the interior ministry said, as human rights groups renewed calls for its abolition.

The city-state – which staunchly maintains that capital punishment is a crime deterrent – executed eight convicts last year, the highest number in a decade, according to official data. They had all committed drug offences.

The Straits Times said it was the first time that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is conducting a survey on the subject.

Last week’s hanging in Singapore of convicted Malaysian drug trafficker Prabu N Pathmanathan sparked fresh calls to scrap the death penalty.

In Malaysia, where the Cabinet has decided to abolish it, several groups asked Singapore to spare the 31-year-old convict on humanitarian grounds. “The Ministry of Home Affairs is conducting the survey to give us a better understanding of the attitude of Singapore residents towards the death penalty,” MHA said yesterday.

Some 2,000 respondents will be questioned over the next two months, the newspaper said.

Human rights groups said the survey is unlikely to be a prelude to Singapore softening its position on capital punishment.

“There’s been no indication whatsoever that Singapore’s position on use of the death penalty is softening,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch.

“One wonders whether the MHA is counting a survey of public opinion to back their views and provide justification for their continued defiance of the international trend towards abolishing the death penalty.”—