[232] in libertarians
Re: Dutchman Scheduled To Hang
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (The Rifleman)
Thu Sep 22 19:03:15 1994
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 18:57:53 EDT
From: The Rifleman <sybok@MIT.EDU>
In about 5 minutes, Singapore will execute a Westerner for possession of
drugs. Just something to think about.
SINGAPORE (AP) -- A Dutch businessman's clemency plea was denied
Thursday, hours before he was scheduled to become the first
Westerner to hang for a drug offense in Singapore.
Johannes van Damme, 59, was arrested in 1991 in Singapore's
Changi Airport when police found 9.4 pounds of heroin in his
suitcase. He has been on death row since last year.
He is scheduled to be hanged at 6 a.m. Friday (7 p.m. EDT
Thursday) in keeping with Singapore's tradition of sending
condemned prisoners to the gallows before dawn on Fridays.
Singapore has executed 78 people for drug offenses, which were
made punishable with a mandatory death sentence in 1975. Possession
of as little as 15 grams, or a half-ounce, of heroin is considered
a punishable offense.
