Kho Jabing executed at 3.30pm, first execution in Singapore not carried out at dawn of Friday

32-year-old Malaysian, Kho Jabing has been hung at 3.30pm after the appeal for stay of execution was dismissed by the Court of Appeal this morning.

Kho Jabing, who is a native of Sarawak and came to Singapore to work as a manual worker, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Singapore in 2010.

After amendments were made in 2012 on the laws on the death penalty in Singapore, Kho Jabing was re-sentenced to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane. The prosecution, however, appealed the re-sentencing and the case was brought to the Court of Appeal.

The court rejected his application for clemency in October 2015. On 23 November 2015, he was granted a temporary reprieve pending the outcome of a petition filed by his lawyers, which raised questions of fact and law.

On 6 April, the Court of Appeal lifted the temporary reprieve and upheld its decision to impose the death penalty on Kho Jabing.

Yesteday, lawyer, Gino Hardial Singh filed a criminal motion citing grounds of apparent bias on the part of Justice Andrew Phang, who had sat on both Jabing’s appeals. However, this criminal motion was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

On the same day, an originating summons was filed by lawyer, Ms Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss. She challenged the constitutionality of certain aspects of the amendments to the mandatory death penalty in Singapore.

Mrs Chong-Aruldoss had sought a stay of execution pending the scheduling of a hearing date for her application to be heard and was given the next day for the application to be heard at 9am.

After two hours of arguments made in the court, the five judges in the Court of Appeal decided to dismiss Jabing’s appeal for a stay of execution and lifted the temporary stay of execution.

In a surprising turn of event, the Singapore government decided to hang Kho in the afternoon of Friday after the temporary stay of execution was lifted in the morning. Hangings in Singapore always take place at dawn on Friday until Kho’s execution today.

Today, also happens to be Kho’s sister’s birthday. Attached below is a birthday card that Kho gave his sister while in prison. She has kindly agreed to share the card with everyone.

Rachel Zeng and a group of anti-death penalty activists who helped raised funds for Jabing’s family to fly to Singapore from Sarawak to bid their son goodbye are now helping to raise funds for Jabing’s family to offset the expenses of the funeral.

Rachel wrote, “The news of Jabing’s imminent execution which will be carried out today is a shock to us. Executions usually take place on Friday, at dawn, so this appears highly irregular. At the moment, the family is at Changi Prison spending their last moments with Jabing, and we are trying to support them as much as we can. Due to their financial difficulties, we will be supporting them with the funeral expenses. However we do not have much left from our last fundraiser and therefore, we are urgently appealing for pledges of donations to help us out here.

I do not have the exact cost at the moment but if you would like to help Jabing’s family with the basic funeral expenses in Sarawak, do drop me a message with how much you are able to pledge. Thank you!”

For those who wish to contact Rachel Zeng, you can contact her via her email, [email protected]