Sarawakian on death row: ‘All avenues exhausted’

KUCHING: The state government has exhausted all avenues to help Sarawakian Kho Jabing who will be facing death row in Singapore come next Friday (May 20).

Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem said the state government had tried its best, but the effort has failed.

“We have tried the best we can by applying to the Singapore authorities. But it has failed. There is nothing more we can do,” said Adenan at a press conference after the swearing-in of 10 cabinet ministers at State Assembly Complex yesterday.

He said the state government had written to the Singapore ambassador last year to ask for leniency, but the request was turned down.

Kho Jabing, 31, from Ulu Baram, was granted a stay of execution in November last year after his lawyer filed a motion raising doubts over the handling of the case.

Jabing was sentenced to death in 2010 for the murder of a Chinese construction worker with a piece of wood in 2008 during a robbery attempt in Singapore. However, following revisions to Singapore’s mandatory death penalty laws in August 2013, a Singapore High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment and to be given 24 strokes of the cane instead.

The prosecution subsequently appealed against the decision before the Court of Appeal reinstated Jabing’s death sentence. In October last year, Singapore President Tony Tan rejected a clemency petition before a stay of execution issued by the Court of Appeal.

 

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