SINGAPORE. LAWYER TRIES TO SAVE DRUG CONVICTS ON DEATH ROW

M. Ravi, a Singapore lawyer and human rights activist, said he planned to campaign against the execution of two convicted heroin traffickers. Ravi said he would seek the help of international human rights groups on behalf of Nelson Malachy, 33, who was stateless, and Nigerian Amara Tochi Iwuchukwu, 19, both on death row for smuggling 727 grams of heroin into the city-state.
Iwuchukwu was caught at Singapore's Changi Airport in November 2004 with heroin estimated by authorities to be worth S$1.5 million after arriving from Dubai. Malachy was subsequently arrested after Iwuchukwu identified him to authorities as the person he was supposed to deliver the drugs to.
The pair, who were not represented legally by Ravi, had been convicted in July 2005 and sentenced to death. Their appeals were to be heard in court on February 20. "The mandatory death penalty should be opposed especially because it does not allow for the exercise of judicial discretion in sentencing," Ravi said at a lunch hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association, adding he hoped the case would create debate about capital punishment in the city-state's media.