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SINGAPORE: Death-row inmate Yong Vui Kong was Thursday re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane.
High court judge Choo Han Teck said he was satisfied that 25-year-old Yong, a Malaysian, had proven that he acted only as a drug courier.
In 2008, Yong -- then 19 years old -- was sentenced to hang for bringing 47.27 grammes of heroin into Singapore.
Since then, he had tried unsuccessfully to appeal against the sentence.
But on Thursday, the High Court ruled that the Malaysian would be spared the gallows.
Yong's re-sentencing follows changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act, which were passed in Parliament last November and came into effect this year.
The changes allow judges the discretion to sentence a courier to life imprisonment and caning if he is found to have substantively assisted the authorities in the fight against drug-trafficking.
Yong recently received the necessary document from the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC), certifying that he had helped authorities here to disrupt drug-trafficking activities.
Yong's lawyer M Ravi also argued that his involvement had been restricted to transporting and delivering the drugs.
Yong was only able to provide first-hand observations of events just prior to collecting the drugs, and after handing over the drugs.
Mr Ravi added: "No evidence was adduced in court against Yong of an involvement that went above and beyond what any mule could reasonably be expected to have known...
"If he were a bigger player, presumably, he would have been charged with additional involvement based on his own evidence."
Mr Ravi also pointed out that Yong was not alleged to or shown to have engaged in acts relating to manufacture, production, packaging, sale, distribution, or marketing of the drugs.
Yong's two older brothers said they were relieved by the turn of events.
Yong Yun Leong, older brother of Yong Vui Kong, said: "I'm heartened and happy with the verdict because it gives my brother a second chance of survival.
"It has been very tormenting for us, very difficult. He was sentenced to death so we were mentally prepared, but Vui Kong did not want to give up."
Mr Ravi said: "I'm extremely gratified to see we had a positive outcome today. Numerous constitutional challenges had been filed in court, but all of them were met with negative outcomes."
Yong is the first drug trafficker on death row to be spared the gallows following changes to the law. - CNA/al
Published: Thursday November 14, 2013 MYT 12:09:00 PM
Updated: Thursday November 14, 2013 MYT 12:41:16 PM
Singapore spares Yong Vui Kong the noose, re-sentences him to life imprisonment, 15 strokes
BY RASHVINJEET S. BEDI
PETALING JAYA: Yong Vui Kong, the Malaysian who has been in death row in Singapore since 2009 for drug trafficking, has been spared the noose.
He will now be imprisoned for life and given 15 strokes of the cane, according to lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying, vice-chair of the Civil Rights Committee of the Kuala Lumpur Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall who has been spearheading a "Save Vui Kong" campaign.
She said the Singapore High Court decided Thursday on the re-sentencing of the Sabahan's case, which has attracted a lot of attention.
Last year, the Singapore Government announced changes to the mandatory death penalty, allowing death row inmates to be given a lighter sentence if they met certain conditions.
If the Attorney-General finds that they meet these conditions, it will issue a Certificate of Co-operation (CoC) allowing the inmate to apply to the courts for the death sentence to be set aside and to be re-sentenced.
Yong, 25, from Sabah, was sentenced to death after he was convicted on Jan 7, 2009, for trafficking 47gm of a controlled drug diamorphine on June 13, 2007, a capital offence under Singapore's Misuse of Drugs Act.
He was only 18 when he was arrested.
According to a statement by the Singapore Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) in September, Yong and Subashkaran Pragasam, a Singaporean on death row, have assisted the Central Narcotics Bureau in disrupting drug trafficking activities within and outside Singapore.
The AGC said if Subashkaran and Yong were able to prove to the court on a balance of probabilities that they were traffickers who only played the role of couriers, the prosecution will leave the sentence to the discretion of the court.
Subashkaran and Yong were the first two people awaiting capital punishment, who the Public Prosecutor decided to issue certificates of substantive assistance under the amended Misuse of Drugs Act.
Since being imprisoned, Yong has turned a new leaf, taking up Buddhism and spending a lot of time on prayer and meditation. He has also become a vegetarian and taken a new name, Nan Di Li, from the Buddhist Dharma.
'Govt aware Yong could escape gallows, but changes to law made for society's benefit'
Published on Nov 14, 2013
The Government was aware that drug mule Yong Vui Kong could escape the gallows when it proposed lifting the mandatory drug penalty, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam on Thursday. -- FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
By Rachel Chang In Colombo, Sri Lanka
The Government was aware that drug mule Yong Vui Kong could escape the gallows when it proposed lifting the mandatory drug penalty, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam on Thursday.
But it went ahead with the changes for the benefit of the wider society, he told reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of Commonwealth foreign ministers here.
"We were certainly aware of the possibility that he could be one of those to benefit from the changes, because we know that he had given some information which led to the arrest of someone else more senior in the hierarchy and that had helped us," Mr Shanmugam said.
"It was a case that seemed to fit within the changes we were making but we made those changes because it was in the interest of society as a whole."
Court dismisses drug courier's bid to avoid caning
Published on May 21, 2015 7:40 AM
The High Court yesterday dismissed Malaysian drug courier Yong Vui Kong's application for a judicial review to avoid caning. -- PHOTO: CNB
By OLIVIA HO
The High Court yesterday dismissed Malaysian drug courier Yong Vui Kong's application for a judicial review to avoid caning.
His lawyer, Ms Violet Netto, will also have to personally foot the bill of $2,500 for legal costs.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said the costs had been incurred by her "failure to conduct proceedings with reasonable competence and expedition".
Yong's death sentence was commuted last November to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane. He was initially sentenced to death in 2008 for trafficking 47.27g of diamorphine.
On March 4 this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed an attempt by Yong, 26, to quash his caning sentence.
On March 13, Ms Netto, who is from law firm L. F. Violet Netto Advocates and Solicitors, made a judicial review application on Yong's behalf for an order that would prohibit his caning.
The AGC subsequently applied to strike out the application on April 14, calling it an abuse of process of the court.
