Death row Malaysian's appeal rejected

Published: Monday April 4, 2011 MYT 4:32:00 PM
Updated: Monday April 4, 2011 MYT 7:08:18 PM
Death row Malaysian's appeal rejected

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah-born Yong Vui Kong's appeal against his death sentence for a drug offence in Singapore was rejected Monday by the island republic's Court of Appeal.

Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, who headed a three-man panel, said the appeal was without merit.

Yong's lawyer M. Ravi said he would again request clemency from President S.R. Nathan, a process that could take up to six months.

Yong had filed the application to reverse the High Court's decision after a comment by the republic's Law Minister K. Shanmugam had irreversibly tainted his clemency petition and on the issue of the president's power in granting clemency.

Shanmugam had made a statement last May that Yong could not be pardoned, even before the 23-year-old could make his clemency plea to the Singapore president.

Yong was caught with heroin in June 2007 when he was 18, a crime that warrants the mandatory death sentence.

Although trial judge Justice Choo Han Teck had asked the prosecution to consider reducing the charge against him because of his age, it declined to do so. Yong was given the death sentence in January 2009.