1. The capital sentences of death imposed on Kalwant Singh A/L Jogindar Singh (“Kalwant”) and Norasharee Bin Gous (“Norasharee”) are scheduled to be carried out on 7 July 2022.
2. Kalwant, a 31-year-old Malaysian, was convicted of possessing not less than 60.15 grammes of diamorphine, or pure heroin, for the purpose of trafficking, and trafficking in not less than 120.90 grammes of diamorphine.
3. Norasharee was convicted of abetting, by instigation, another person to traffic not less than 120.90 grammes of diamorphine.
4. In total, 181.05 grammes of diamorphine was involved. This is a substantial amount of heroin, sufficient to feed the addiction of about 2,160 abusers for a week.
5. Kalwant and Norasharee were accorded full due process under the law, and were represented by legal counsel throughout the process. Their petitions to the President for clemency were unsuccessful.
a. They were both sentenced to capital punishment on 1 June 2016. They appealed against their convictions and sentences, and the Court of Appeal dismissed their appeals on 10 March 2017.
i. In Kalwant’s appeal, he disputed having actual knowledge that the substance in the bundles he carried were heroin. The Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court that Kalwant had actual knowledge that the bundles contained heroin.
ii. Norasharee’s appeal was premised on the argument that another co-accused was trying to frame him. After assessing the evidence, the Court of Appeal stated it was led to the “inescapable conclusion” that the co-accused was truthful when he claimed to have taken instructions from Norasharee regarding the drug transaction. The Court of Appeal also held that the alternatives presented in Norasharee’s defence were “too fanciful” to raise any reasonable doubt in the co-accused’s testimony.
b. On 10 July 2018, Norasharee filed an application seeking to re-open his appeal by adducing further evidence. Norasharee also claimed that he had instructed his defence counsel at the earlier trial and appeal to call a witness, but the counsel failed to carry out his instructions. The Court of Appeal dismissed the application on 21 April 2021. The Court of Appeal also held that, in all the circumstances, Norasharee’s allegations against the defence counsel’s conduct of the trial and appeal were “completely unfounded and unfair”.
c. Norasharee was also one of 17 prisoners awaiting capital punishment who filed an application alleging discrimination against them as persons of Malay ethnicity when prosecuting them for capital drug offences. The application was heard by the High Court and dismissed on 2 December 2021. The High Court found that the application was an abuse of process of the court.
6. Since Kalwant was notified of the scheduled execution, he has filed a further application, and the matter is currently before the Court.
7. The capital punishment is used only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society. Capital punishment is part of Singapore’s comprehensive harm prevention strategy which targets both drug demand and supply.
CENTRAL NARCOTICS BUREAU
5 JULY 2022
