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Death Penalty Book Author Arrested in Singapore

By Jeralyn

photo by Alan Shadrake

British author Alan Shadrake, whose book Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice on the Dock, was recently released, has been detained in Singapore on charges including criminal defamation and contempt of court.

His book contained an interview with Darshan Singh, pictured above, the now retired head executioner at Singapore's Changi Prison.

The book also features interviews with local human rights activists, lawyers and former police officers on various cases involving capital punishment in the city-state, which carries out the death penalty by hanging.

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From the book's press release:

Over the past few decades, investigative journalism has come to mean the kind of brave reporting that exposes injustice, wrongdoing and, above all, the abuse of power. Alan Shadrake’s hard-hitting new book cuts through the façade of official silence to reveal disturbing truths about Singapore’s use of the death penalty. From in-depth interviews with Darshan Singh, Singapore’s chief executioner for nearly fifty years, to meticulously researched accounts of numerous high profile cases, Once a Jolly Hangman reveals the cruelty and imprudence of an entire judicial system. At the same time he displays a touching empathy with the anguish of the victims and their families. This important book should be required reading for human rights activists everywhere.

Alan sent me an e-mail in June, inviting me to the Kuala Lumpur opening event:

Date: Saturday, 26 June 2010
Time: 11am – 1pm
Venue: KL and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Jalan Maharajalela.
Programme:
Welcome by Nora Murat (Amnesty International)
Speakers:
Edmund Bon Tai Soon (Chairperson, Constitutional Law Committee, Bar Council)
M. Ravi (Dedicated abolitionist and Yong Vui Kong’s lawyer in Singapore)
Alan Shadrake (Author)
Discussion
Official Book Launch and Presentation
Book sale and signing

He also e-mailed his plans for Singapore:

...the first launch was in KL on Saturday and Amnesty International, who helped sponsor this event, are also involved in a similar but we hope a bigger launch in Singapore July 10.

He said the book is still seeking publishers for the US, UK and Australia. Here's a review by Yawning Bread.

As for what got Singapore so mad, Online Citizen has some thoughts and says it may be related to the Vignes Mourthi case he wrote about. Mourthi, a 23 year old factory worker was executed for trafficking one ounce of heroin. He asserted his innocence. Online Citizen says:

Mourthi’s conviction rested largely on the strength of evidence of the officer who arrested him, Sgt S Rajkumar, a senior officer of the Central Narcotics Bureau. Sgt Rajkumar was a key witness in the prosecution’s case, and Mourthi’s defense was that an incriminating piece of evidence collected by Rajkumar had been added at a much later date.

Shadrake reveals that just three days after Mourthi’s arrest, on 23 September 2001, Sgt. Rajkumar was himself arrested for allegedly handcuffing, raping and sodomizing a young woman and for subsequently bribing her to keep silent.....Shadrake points out how the ongoing case against Rajkumar was never revealed to Mourthi’s defense lawyer, and surmises that the prosecutor and other parties must have known about Rajkumar’s case but chose to keep silent.

Here's another Jolly Hangman book review. Mourthi's defense lawyer, M. Ravi, an activist against the Singapore death penalty, also wrote a book, Hung at Dawn.

Good luck to Alan, and when he gets a U.S. publisher, I hope everyone reads the book. If you'd like to order it from Singapore,and are not in a "restricted country," you can do so here.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).