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SINGAPORE LIFTS DEATH PENALTY ON DRUG TRAFFICKER FOR FIRST TIME
November 14, 2013: Singapore lifted for the first time the death penalty given to a drug trafficker, commuting his sentence to life in prison and 15 strokes of the cane.
Yong Vui Kong, a Malaysian who was sentenced to hang in 2009, was spared the gallows after a judge ruled he was satisfied that he had acted as a drug courier, rather than having a wider part in the supply or distribution of narcotics.
Yong's reprieve comes after the state announced changes to its drug rules late last year and allowed judges to impose life sentences and caning on couriers who help the authorities tackle drug trafficking.
In September, Singapore's Attorney General's Chamber issued a statement saying that the Public Prosecutor would testify that Yong had substantively helped the city-state's drugs enforcement agency in "disrupting drug trafficking activities within and outside Singapore".
Yong was arrested in 2007 in Singapore when he was 19 and charged with trafficking 47.27 grams of heroin.
Singapore has also changed its laws on the mandatory death sentence for murder, allowing judges in some cases to impose life imprisonment and caning for some categories of the crime.
So far five murderers on death row have had their sentences changed this year since the law was amended. (Sources: Reuters, 14/11/2013)
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