Singapore sentences Ghanaian drug trafficker to death: report

[grace]

Singapore sentences Ghanaian drug trafficker to death: report

3 January 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...Fz5HvcZziVXlGyQ

 

SINGAPORE (AFP) — A 20-year-old Ghanaian has been sentenced to death in Singapore for trafficking 2.6 kilograms (5.73 pounds) of cannabis, the Straits Times reported Saturday.

 

The High Court convicted and sentenced Chijioke Stephen Obioha on Tuesday after a 21-day trial held last year, it said.

 

Under Singapore's tough anti-drug laws, the death penalty is mandatory for anyone caught trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine or 500 grams of cannabis.

 

The death penalty is carried out by hanging.

 

Narcotics officers arrested Obioha in April 2007 following a surveillance operation. He had come to Singapore in 2005 to try out for a football club, the report said.

 

He was not hired but remained in the city-state working as a middle man for electronics goods dealers. His immigration pass expired in January 2007.

 

Human rights groups have strongly urged Singapore to abolish the death penalty, but the government maintains that it plays a key role in keeping crime down and is a strong deterrent to organised crime gangs.

 

In December 2004 Singapore hanged a 25-year-old Australian drug runner Nguyen Tuong Van, despite appeals for clemency by then Prime Minister John Howard.

 

Two convicted African drug traffickers were put to death in 2007 after their appeals for clemency were turned down and despite protests from the United Nations and rights activists.

[kiwi kush]

The Sinaporeans claim that the death penalty is a deterant, yet decades after its inception, people are still taking the risk and getting caught so it clearly isn't working. Wake up Singapore! take a leaf out of Massacheusetts book!

[Nooby]

Maybe it's just the "I wont get caught' syndrome that keeps people at it?

 

But then why would anyone with more than 2 brain cells take the risk of smuggling drugs into a country where they know it could cost them their life?

 

Besides there are plenty of cases where the death penalty is appropriate, I'm not convinced this is one of them though.

[kev.au]

Maybe it's just the "I wont get caught' syndrome that keeps people at it?

 

But then why would anyone with more than 2 brain cells take the risk of smuggling drugs into a country where they know it could cost them their life?

 

I agree, it's hard to feel sorry for the guy, having known the risks involved.

 

Still, it's a waste of life.

 

 

Thanks, Kev

[Frazz]

this is the life and death of a 20 y.old kid .. 20 yo and told you are to be killed, you wont live to see 21 ..

add this state-sanctioned murder to the shocking toll of Prohibition ... its immoral to kill people for trading in cannabis ..

 

im not familiar with this case, but i recently saw a show on talent scouts for big european soccer clubs 'conning' young african villagers into coming to europe for tryouts/contracts with footy clubs only to find themselves in a different country with no contacts and facing deportation if and when the footy club passes them over for others .. then its back to the poverty of the village unless they can support themselves or have a job or whatever ...