Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong indicated that about 80 people had been executed this year. When asked why he did not know the exact number, Mr Goh replied: "I have got more important issues to worry about."
Singapore authorities have dramatically escalated the use of the death penalty this year with the execution rate roughly triple that of the previous three years, the government has revealed.
In a rare comment about the death penalty, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told the BBC in an interview on Tuesday's HARDtalk program that up to 80 people had been executed in the first nine months of this year.
"I think probably it will be in the region of about 70 to 80. I do not know the precise number, I stand to be corrected," Goh said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the Singapore government.
The government attached a note to the transcript saying 28 people had been executed in 2002, 27 in 2001 and 21 in 2000, without giving confirmed figures for this year.
When asked why he did not know exactly how many people had been executed this year, Goh replied: "I have got more important issues to worry about.
"Each execution comes to the Cabinet and we look at it. If we decide that a certain person has got to be executed, he is executed. I don't keep count."
Local human rights group Think Centre attempts to monitor the use of the death penalty in Singapore but its president, Sinapan Samydorai, told AFP he was shocked about the number of executions and that Goh had revealed the details publicly.
"It's much higher than we expected," Samydorai said, echoing calls by groups such as Amnesty International that it was normally very difficult to extract details from the government as to how many people have been executed.
The death penalty is rarely discussed by the government or in the local media, and authorities do not publicise when individual executions are carried out.
Under Singapore law, the death penalty can apply for a range of crimes including murder and treason, but Samydorai said it was drug-related crimes that led to the most executions.
Under Singapore law, anyone caught with 15 grams (0.53 ounces) of heroin, 30 grams of morphine or 500 grams of cannabis is presumed to be trafficking that drug, and the onus is on that person to prove their innocence.
Samydorai said placing the burden on the accused to prove they were not trafficking, especially given the relatively small amounts of drug required to be presumed a drug trafficker, was of particular concern.
In most other democracies, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Amnesty said in its annual report for 2003 that the city-state had one of the highest execution rates in the world, relative to its population of about 4.2 million people.
But Goh brushed off criticism about the government's use of the death penalty.
"If you don't punish them and they manage to get their drugs through to Singapore, more people would be punished by their acts," he said in the BBC interview.
One ongoing case that has received some publicity in Singapore is the death sentence handed down to a Malaysian, Vignes Mourthi, in August last year after being found guilty of trafficking 27.65 grams of heroin.
Amnesty's Malaysia branch this week called on the Singapore government to commute the death sentence handed down to Mourthi, 22, who it said is scheduled to be executed on Friday morning despite his claims of innocence.
Amnesty said Mourthi had claimed an incriminating conversation submitted to court by police between him and an undercover police officer never took place.
PM Goh says only 10 people executed, not 80
PRIME Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Thursday, Sept 25, just 10 people had been executed in the city-state this year, two days after saying in a television interview up to 80 had been killed.
Goh's press secretary released a statement clarifying the prime minister's comments about Singapore's capital punishment laws made on BBC's HARDtalk program, in which he said "about 70 to 80 people" had been executed in the first nine months of this year.
"In 2003, as of today, the death penalty was carried out on 10 occasions," the press secretary said.
"When the prime minister used the figure '70-80', he had said that he did not know the precise number and that the figure needed to be checked and corrected."
Goh said on the BBC program: "I think probably it will be in the region of about 70 to 80. I do not know the precise number, I stand to be corrected."
When asked why he did not know exactly how many people had been executed this year, Goh replied: "I have got more important issues to worry about.
"Each execution comes to the Cabinet and we look at it. If we decide that a certain person has got to be executed, he is executed. I don't keep count."
The death penalty is rarely discussed by the Singapore government or in the local media, with executions very rarely publicised.
Amnesty said in its annual report for 2003 that the city-state had one of the highest execution rates in the world, relative to its population of about 4.2 million people.
Government figures show 28 people were executed in 2002, 27 in 2001 and 21 in 2000.
Singapore carries out the death penalty by hanging.
Agence France Presse
September 25, 2003
Singapore,br>
Source and Relevant Links
24 September 03, AFP: Capital punishment soars in Singapore by Karl Malakunas
Herald Sun Singapore steps up executions 25 September 03
Today COURT DISMISSES DEATH-ROW APPEAL
Straits Times Interactive Death penalty: The Unconstitutional Punishment
Think Centre: Singapore: Indian migrant worker facing execution
Think Centre: Sixty 'Cities for Life' Light Up Against Death Penalty
Think Centre: Zulfikar bin Mustaffah is a Drug Addict but NOT a Drug Trafficker!
Think Centre: Death Penalty Case Gets an Airing in Parliament
Aliran Malaysia:Is Capital Punishment Justified?
