
CLEMENCY PETITION FOR YONG VUI KONG


This
Petition was closed on 15 August 2010. The signatures were downloaded and
submitted to the President on 18 August 2010. Thank you all who have
signed. Your Excellency, President S R Nathan The Istana, Orchard Road Singapore CLEMENCY PETITION FOR YONG VUI KONG We, the citizens of Singapore are deeply troubled by the
statement of the Minister for Law, Mr K Shanmugam reported in The Straits
Times of 10 May 2010. The minister was reported to have said that although
Yong was young, to let him go was to send a wrong signal. He said: “We are sending a signal to all the drug barons out there:
Just make sure you choose a victim who is young, or a mother of a young child,
and use them as the people to carry the drugs into Singapore.” The minister must know that his statement on a pending
capital case before the court of appeal would adversely influence the decision
of the judges. The minister, as a member of the cabinet which would in due
course sit to consider any clemency petition filed on behalf of Yong, must also
know that his statement would unduly influence his colleagues in the making of
their decisions. Yong Vui Kong is a young person, totally powerless and at
your mercy. Being incarcerated in Changi Prison, he is not able to comment on
the unjust statements of the minister. But those statements must surely pain
him and lead him to the inevitable conclusion that the appeal judges would be
influenced by the words of the minister. On Friday, 14 May 2010 they dismissed
his appeal and ordered him to be hanged. Your Excellency alone has the power to save Yong Vui Kong
from the gallows. The minds of the cabinet ministers have been gravely
prejudiced by the Minister for Law and only you and you alone can save this
young person, a first-time offender who at the time of the commission of the
offence was only 18. We understand that he is now filled with contrition,
has become a devout Buddhist and is determined to lead a good life. We urge Your Excellency to commute the sentence of death
passed on Yong Vui Kong to one of imprisonment. We are confident that Yong will
have a positive influence on society if you will give him this one and only
chance. “Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7) Justice must be tempered with mercy.
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