Family seeks support for Singapore's death row inmate Kho Jabing

Family members of Sarawakian Kho Jabing scheduled to be hanged for causing the death of a Chinese citizen, Cao Ruyin in 2007 are expected to seek the help of Sarawakian lawmakers in their bid to gather support in their plea for leniency.

Jabing’s sister Jumai and mother Lenduk who are expected to leave for Kuala Lumpur from Singapore on Wednesday are also trying to also meet lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who heads the Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), as reported by The Malaysian Insider.

Jumai and Lenduk are hoping that Shafee would deliver a letter of appeal for Asean nations to lend their support in calling for clemency for Jabing.

Barely 24 hours before Jabing’s sentencing was to take place in Singapore he was granted a stay execution by the Singapore Court of Appeal.

Priscilla Chia, director of We Believe in Second Chances are currently assisting the family in their bid for help had been trying to arrange meetings with the lawmakers and also Shafee.

Their bid however was not well received by many of lawmakers, said Malaysian lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying.

Ngeow who was also the lawyer for Malaysian Yong Vui Kong, the first drug trafficker in November 2013 who was first sentenced on death row to have his sentence commuted to life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane under Singapore’s 2012 amendments to their capital punishment laws.

According to Ngeow, Yong had received more public and government support compared to Jabing.

“For Vui Kong, we had a lot of media coverage, a lot of people signing the petition to grant him clemency and we even had international pressure.

“But because in Jabing’s case it’s murder, or rather robbery leading to murder, it’s a problem trying to rally public support. MPs are also hesitant to throw their support behind his case,” said Ngoew as quoted in The Malaysian Insider.

In 2014, the Singapore High Court had reviewed Jabing’s case and resentenced him to life imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane.

The sentence however was only for a short time when his penalty was reimposed by the Court of Appeal.

Despite the reimposement, the Court of Appeal on Thursday had delayed his execution and stated that Jabing’s lawyer has until November 23 to present a Motion of Crisis for his case to be resubmitted.

Priscilla said if the motion was dismissed by the court, Jabing will be the first Malaysian to be hanged in Singapore since 2011.