SINGAPORE, Nov 18 — Like executed murderer Kho Jabing, a convicted drug trafficker on death row had his eleventh-hour appeal thrown out by the apex court, with the judges also ticking off the appellant for “abuse of process”.
Ghanaian Chijioke Stephen Obioha, 39, would head to the gallows today, after making a third appearance before the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Obioha claimed to have come to Singapore in 2005 to try out for a football club and was nabbed in April 2007 by anti-narcotics officers.
He was convicted of trafficking 2.6kg of cannabis — more than five times the capital limit — and sentenced to death in December 2008.
After death penalty laws were changed in 2013, Obioha maintained that he did not wish to be re-sentenced.
He made a last-minute attempt to do so a day before he was scheduled to hang in May last year and was granted a stay of execution, before withdrawing his application three months later.
Yesterday, Obioha’s lawyer Joseph Chen argued that his client had suffered “mental anguish and agony” from the “inordinate delay in sentence”, and called for a stay of execution and the death sentence to be set aside.
However, Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and Tay Yong Kwang, and Judicial Commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng dismissed the appeal to halt the execution, after pointing out that any delay had been caused by Obioha himself, as he changed his mind repeatedly about re-sentencing.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Phang noted that the stay of execution had been in place from May 2015 to Oct 24 this year, and despite being given “more than ample time”, Obioha had not filed any appeals.
“The filing of the present application at the eleventh hour … amounts to an abuse of the court processes,” Justice Phang said.
“We are of the view there has been no undue delay.
“On the contrary, the applicant having stated that he did not want to avail himself of this possible legal route for re-sentencing, later filed (an application to state that he) desired re-sentencing after all, thereby delaying matters.”
Another drug trafficker on death row — Devendran Supramaniam — also had his last-minute appeals against the court’s decision and for a stay of execution dismissed by the Court of Appeal yesterday.
In May, Sarawakian Kho Jabing was executed, but not before appearing in front of the Court of Appeal five times and securing two last-minute stays of execution.
He was given the death penalty after he killed Chinese construction worker Cao Ruyin in 2008 during a robbery near Geylang Drive, bashing him on the head repeatedly with a tree branch and causing 14 skull fractures.
In his final court appearance, the Court of Appeal said that any attempt to stop the legal process must be on sufficient legal grounds. By raising past arguments, the whole system of justice would be thrown into disrepute, it stated. — TODAY
