The Singaporean government revealed it had dramatically...

The Singaporean government revealed it had dramatically escalated the use of the death penalty in 2003 with the execution rate roughly triple that of the previous three years. In a rare comment about the death penalty, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong told the BBC in an interview that up to 80 people had been executed in the first nine months of 2003. "I think probably it will be in the region of about 70 to 80. I do not know the precise number, I stand to be corrected," Goh said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the Singapore government. The government attached a note to the transcript saying 28 people had been executed in 2002, 27 in 2001 and 21 in 2000, without giving confirmed figures for 2003. When asked why he did not know exactly how many people had been executed in 2003, Goh replied: "I have got more important issues to worry about. Local human rights group Think Centre attempted to monitor the use of the death penalty in Singapore but its president, Sinapan Samydorai, told AFP he was shocked about the number of executions and that Goh had revealed the details publicly. "It's much higher than we expected," Samydorai said, echoing calls by groups such as Amnesty International that it was normally very difficult to extract details from the government as to how many people have been executed. The death penalty is rarely discussed by the government or in the local media, and authorities do not publicise when individual executions are carried out.