On this date, May 15, 2020, A heroin smuggler has been sentenced to death via Zoom call in Singapore. Punithan Genasan, a 37-year-old Malaysian, was told he would be hanged by a judge on the video calling service. It is the first time the city-state has administered capital punishment via the service, a spokesman for the Supreme Court said.
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Zoom and doom: Drug smuggler finds out he will be executed for his crime in video call with Singapore judge
· Punithan Genasan, 37, sentenced to hang in Singapore for heroin smuggling
· He was found guilty of hiring two couriers to transport 63lbs of heroin in 2011
· Genasan was handed the sentence during a Zoom call - a first for the city-state
· Singapore courts are using remote sentencing amid the coronavirus pandemic
A heroin smuggler has been sentenced to death via Zoom call in Singapore.
Punithan Genasan, a 37-year-old Malaysian, was told he would be hanged by a judge on the video calling service on Friday last week.
It is the first time the city-state has administered capital punishment via the service, a spokesman for the Supreme Court said.
Singapore has introduced remote calling in court cases in an attempt to curb one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in southeast Asia.
The sentence was passed after Genansan was found guilty of hiring two couriers to transport 63lbs (28.5kgs) of heroin into Singapore in 2011.
Genansan agreed to pay the first courier - Malaysian V. Shanmugam Veloo - £1,300 per month to drive shipments of heroin from his home country into Singapore.
He then recruited Singaporean Mohd Suief Ismail to receive the packages, according to the Straits Times.
The couriers were caught transporting the first shipment, and confessed that Genansan had come up with the scheme.
Genasan - a debt collector by trade - claimed not to know either of the men and said he had been too busy with his regular business to arrange the scheme.
But a judge ruled he was lying after he failed to explain how both couriers were able to give personal information about him, despite his claims not to know them.
Shanmugam and Suief were convicted in 2015 after a joint trial. The former was sentenced to 15 lashes and life in prison, the latter was sentenced to death.
Genansan was put on trial in 2018 and was found guilty earlier this year.
Genasan's lawyer, Peter Fernando, said his client received the judge's verdict on a Zoom call and is considering an appeal.
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[PHOTO SOURCE: https://www.cosmolife.sg/ |
While rights groups have criticised the use of Zoom in capital cases, Fernando said he did not object to the use of video-conferencing for Friday's call since it was only to receive the judge's verdict.
He said the verdict could be heard clearly, and no other legal arguments were presented.
California-based tech firm Zoom did not immediately respond to a request for comment made via its representatives in Singapore.
The Attorney General's Chambers, the public prosecutor, referred Reuters' questions to the Supreme Court.
Many court hearings in Singapore have been adjourned during a lockdown period that started in early April and is due to run until June 1, while cases deemed essential have been held remotely.
Singapore has a zero-tolerance policy for illegal drugs and has hanged hundreds of people - including dozens of foreigners - for narcotics offences over past decades, rights groups say.
'Singapore's use of the death penalty is inherently cruel and inhumane, and the use of remote technology like Zoom to sentence a man to death makes it even more so,' said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.
HRW has also criticised a similar case in Nigeria where a death sentence was delivered via Zoom.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8338839/Man-sentenced-death-Singapore-Zoom-call.html
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