Here comes the Pope
Sorry for the lack of a newsletter over the weekend—it felt like I might have been coming down with something so I decided to take time out to rest and catch up on sleep, and thankfully that seems to have made whatever it was go away.
Ghost—the content management system I use for this newsletter—has rolled out a function that allows one-off tips. If this works, then it does away with the need for a separate Ko-Fi page, so I’ve replaced the usual Ko-Fi button with another ‘tip’ button (now in SGD, unlike Ko-Fi, which was in USD) and we’ll see how it goes.
One last housekeeping thing! Ghost now allows me to change the currency used for subscriptions, so I’ve converted from USD to SGD to hopefully save a bunch of us some currency conversion fees, since most subscribers are Singapore-based or have Singapore bank accounts. I believe this might only affect new subscribers, though—I’ll check with Ghost and find out!
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Pope Francis is headed our way! He’ll be here from 11–13 September for a short visit that apparently took a really long time to make happen. He isn’t even here yet and there’s been a clamour for souvenirs already. Like his visit to Indonesia, it’s expected that inter-faith issues and the environment will be big on the agenda. But will he mention the death penalty?
The Singapore government is a notable and enthusiastic defender of capital punishment, but the Pope’s position is clear: in 2018 he even approved a revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to state that “the death penalty is inadmissible”. Of course, it doesn’t automatically follow that a secular country like Singapore must follow what the Pope says, but, given how active Singapore is in hanging, or trying to hang, people, I do hope Pope Francis will say something.
And speaking of the death penalty…
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The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal involving 34 death row prisoners. The prisoners had filed an application asking the High Court to declare that a policy of the Legal Aid Scheme for Capital Offences (LASCO) not to provide legal aid in post-appeal applications was unconstitutional. They made particular reference to Article 9 of Singapore’s Constitution, especially Articles 9(1) and 9(3).
What does Article 9 say?
Article 9(1): No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law.
Article 9(3): Where a person is arrested, he shall be informed as soon as may be of the grounds of his arrest and shall be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his choice.
LASCO stands ready to appoint lawyers for people charged with capital offences at the trial and appeal stage, but things become trickier should a prisoner want to reopen their case after their appeal has already been dismissed. The prisoners say they haven't been able to access LASCO to pursue such post-appeal applications, and that this undermines their ability to access justice. The situation is especially serious considering they're death row prisoners; there's no sentence harsher than what they're facing, and once carried out, cannot be reversed.
The High Court struck out their application in May, saying that it contained “no reasonable course of action”. The judge said that the prisoners could still seek legal advice and get their own lawyers, and are not deprived of access to justice or the courts because they don't get free legal representation. This afternoon, the prisoners appealed to the three judges on the Court of Appeal bench to send the case back to the High Court.
Although people gathered in the public gallery of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court to observe the proceedings, the hearing was held over Zoom. The 34 prisoners appeared via Zoom from prison. The prisoners represented themselves, with Iskandar bin Rahmat speaking on their behalf. There were 36 of them when the application was first filed, but two were executed last month.
After hearing from both sides, court adjourned briefly for the judges to discuss before they came back and dismissed the appeal, agreeing with the lower court that there was no course of action. The full written judgment should be out soon—I'll share it when I see it.
* I’m only able to mail books out to Milo Peng Funders in Singapore.
** If a book hasn’t found a home for a long time, I might offer it to the general list of subscribers.
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The government hopes a new bill will tackle deepfakes and the like at election time. The Elections (Integrity of Online Advertising) (Amendment) Bill will target content that makes it look like a candidate said or did something they did not, whether through the use of AI or tools like Photoshop. If passed, it’ll allow a candidate to report such content to a Returning Officer, who’ll be able to issue corrective orders. It’ll be an offence to anyhowly report, and could land one with a fine or even losing their seat.
I haven’t looked at the actual wording of the bill yet, but it’s on the to-do list.