A man has been sentenced to death via the Zoom videoconferencing application in Singapore. A first for the country, strongly criticized by human rights defenders.
Malaysian drug trafficker Punithan Genasan was sentenced to death by hanging on Friday during a remote coronavirus hearing, city-state justice officials said. The Supreme Court said that the hearing had been organized remotely "for the safety of all those involved in the proceedings".
The right to "see the charge"
The 37-year-old man was convicted of selling at least 28.5 grams of heroin, a crime punishable by death under strict Singaporean anti-drug law. It is the first time that capital punishment has been passed during a remote hearing, the Supreme Court said.
Human Rights Watch said the technology was completely unsuitable for sentencing such a sentence. "The death penalty is inherently cruel and inhuman, and it is even worse when Singapore uses technology like Zoom to sentence a man to death," said Asia organization deputy director Phil Robertson. "It is incredible that the prosecution and the court are so insensitive and that they do not understand that a man threatened with the death penalty has the right to appear before the court to see the accusation," he said. he continued, questioned by AFP.
The city-state had initially succeeded in containing the spread of the virus, but it is currently facing a second wave of contamination. Singapore has registered more than 29,000 cases of contamination but managed to limit the number of coronavirus deaths to 22.
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