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SINGAPORE - Before a packed courtroom on Tuesday, the judiciary shot down a claim made by the Attorney General's (AG) Chambers that the High Court had no authority to put off the execution of convicted drug mule Yong Vui Kong, 21.
The decision by the Court of Appeal, the highest court in the Singapore justice system, has given Yong a lifeline, as the stay of execution will remain in effect until the outcome of his upcoming appeal is determined.
The three-judge court - comprising Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, Justice VK Rajah and Justice Andrew Phang - was of the opinion that Yong's was an "unusual case", but was also "satisfied we have the jurisdiction to have the appeal to proceed".
Yong, who was sentenced to death in November last year for trafficking 47g of heroin, was supposed to have been hanged last Friday. But lawyer M Ravi successfully sought a stay of execution last week from the High Court - whose decision the AG's Chambers had opposed.
A day after that decision, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jaswant Singh sent a letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court and stated that "the High Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the criminal motion" put forth by Mr Ravi.
On Tuesday, DPP Singh agreed there was no abuse of process in Mr Ravi's application, but he maintained again that Yong should not be given another appeal, as "the process has taken place and completed".
In response, Justice Rajah said the High Court should not lose jurisdiction even though the President had decided to reject Yong's clemency plea. "It does not end with the President," said Justice Rajah, as the appellate court cited several cases in law.
Justice Woo Bih Li, who granted Mr Ravi's motion last week, had also written in his grounds of decision, following the AG's Chambers' letter, that the Criminal Procedure Code provided the High Court the authority to grant a stay of execution in certain situations.
The Court of Appeal concluded on Tuesday that an appeal will go ahead, as it "has not heard the merits (of a previous appeal), which was withdrawn by the applicant".
The court heard for the first time that Yong, who withdrew his appeal in April - one week before it was to be heard - did so "based on a misapprehension that in order to maintain an appeal against conviction on points of law, it is necessary to lie," according to Mr Ravi.
"The overall impression is that the applicant has become hopelessly confused and has muddled up notions of legal reasoning and argument with issues of morality and spiritual devotion," said the lawyer of his client, who became a Buddhist after his conviction.
After the hearing, the appellant's elder brother Yong Yun Chung, 23, told reporters that his family was "relieved" by the decision. He added that their mother, who suffers from severe depression, was still unaware that his brother was supposed to hang.
"She knows that he's in jail for trafficking, but we still haven't told her. My mother met with my brother in jail for the first time last week; he only told her that he's going away to join a monk and won't be coming back," he said.
The date of the upcoming appeal has yet to be determined, but it is expected to happen in the next few months. - TODAY
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