Father’s mercy plea for Briton facing flogging

THE father of the British ex-public schoolboy set to be flogged in Singapore for drugs offences said yesterday that the ‘punishment should fit the crime’ as he called for a review of his son’s case.

Businessman Alex Yuen, 70, urged the authorities in the former Crown colony to reconsider his son’s sentence, which he said was ‘excessive’ and ‘against human rights’.

Ye Ming Yuen, 29, pictured, who was born in London and is a former pupil at £37,000-a-year Westminster School, has been sentenced to 2 strokes of the cane. He has also been jailed for 20 years after being convicted of seven drug offences, including trafficking, in Singapore.

As revealed in Saturday’s Daily Mail, the case has sparked a stand-off between the UK and Singapore. Yuen’s father, who is based in the UK, said: ‘I hope he can be granted a retrial or clemency.’

Mr Yuen – who has not yet had direct contact with the Singaporean authorities over his son’s sentence – said: ‘The fundamental principle of sentencing is that the punishment must fit the crime and the culpability of the offender. The seven charges the prosecution proceeded with against my son are petty.’