SINGAPORE: The Court of Appeal has dismissed two separate eleventh-hour makes an attempt by a pair of drug traffickers, who had been scheduled to hold on Wednesday (Feb 16), to escape their executions.
Singaporean Roslan Bakar, 51, and Malaysian Pausi Jefridin, 37, had been sentenced to death in 2010 and have unsuccessfully challenged the capital punishment through the years.
Two days earlier than their scheduled execution, their lawyer, Mr Charles Yeo, filed a legal movement, asking the Court of Appeal to evaluation its 2018 determination on the death sentences.
The movement was heard and dismissed by a three-judge apex court docket on Tuesday (Feb 15).
Mr Yeo then filed an software to the High Court in search of to begin judicial evaluation proceedings to declare that the death sentences had been unconstitutional.
This was heard and dismissed by the High Court on Wednesday morning (Feb 16) however a short lived keep of execution was granted pending attraction.
The attraction was then heard by a three-judge apex court docket on Wednesday afternoon and dismissed. In each bids, Mr Yeo contended that Roslan and Pausi had been intellectually disabled – a difficulty beforehand raised by the pair however was rejected by the High Court in 2017 and by the Court of Appeal in 2018.
Citing a earlier judgment in written submissions, Senior State Counsel Francis Ng mentioned: “It does not benefit anyone – not accused persons, not their families nor society at large – for there to be an endless inquiry with the same raised hopes and dashed expectations that accompany each such fruitless endeavour.”
Roslan and Pausi had been charged with trafficking in not lower than 96.07g of heroin on June 14, 2008.
After a 15-day trial, on April 22, 2010, they had been convicted and sentenced to the death penalty, which was then necessary for offences involving greater than 15g of heroin.
Their appeals had been heard and dismissed on March 17, 2011.
On Jan 30, 2015, Roslan filed an software in search of a retrial. This was dismissed on Nov 30 that yr.
In June 2016, Roslan and Pausi utilized to be given life imprisonment, after the regulation was modified to enable judges to impose the choice sentence if particular circumstances are met.
Both males argued that they had been affected by an abnormality of thoughts.
A defence psychiatrist had assessed Pausi’s IQ to be at 67, whereas one other psychiatrist assessed that Roslan has borderline intelligence.
But in a judgment on Nov 13, 2017, the High Court discovered that each males “displayed competence and comprehension of what they had been doing” after they dedicated the offences.
The males’s conduct and their very own testimonies confirmed that they had been “functioning in methods no completely different from folks with greater IQ degree in relation to the drug offences”, mentioned the court docket.
“Significantly, Roslan was the central determine within the drug transaction. He directed the actions of the others concerned and orchestrated its shifting elements,” mentioned the court docket.
“Pausi was ready to ship the medicine from outdoors Singapore and took part within the operation with little problem… A low IQ degree alone will not be proof of an abnormality of thoughts.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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