16th January, 2004

Singapore has the highest rate of executions per capita of any nation in the world, according to a recent Amnesty International report.

The report found that relative to the size of its population, Singapore had three times the number of the executions of Saudi Arabia, hanging more than 400 prisoners in the past 13 years.

Drawing on data contained in a United Nations report, it said Singapore had a rate of 13.57 executions per million people between 1994 and 1999, followed by Saudi Arabia with 4.65, Belarus with 3.2, Sierra Leone with 2.84, Kyrgyzstan with 2.8, Jordan with 2.12 and China with 2.01.

Amnesty International called on the Singaporean Government to impose an immediate moratorium on executions and to commute all death sentences to prison terms.

It claimed official data about the use of the death penalty was “shrouded in secrecy” and that it was not known how many people were currently on death row.

A spokesman for Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs described the allegations as “absurd”.

The spokesman said in a statement that all judicial decisions involving the death penalty were “open to public scrutiny” and that no person was executed until all avenues of appeal for clemency had been exhausted.

He added: “Most Singaporeans know that our tough but fair system of criminal justice makes Singapore one of the safest places in the world to live and to work in.”