Kho Jabing's family informed he'll be executed today, says NGO

PETALING JAYA: Singapore Prison Service has informed the family of Kho Jabing (pic) that his execution will take place today, according to the Singapore Anti-Death Penalty Campaign.

“This is highly irregular. Traditionally, the executions will take place at dawn on Fridays.

“We don’t know why the rush to hang him. This is the first time it has happened in Singapore,” campaigner Rachel Zeng told The Star Online.

Earlier Friday, Jabing lost an eleventh-hour bid for a stay of execution when the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.

Zeng said that Jabing’s family “is meeting him at the prison” and there didn’t seem to be any other avenue to stop the execution.

Jabing, 31, was scheduled to be hanged in the morning for the brutal killing of a construction worker in 2008.

Late Thursday, he was granted a temporary stay of execution after lawyer Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss filed an originating summons challenging the constitutionality of certain aspects of the amendments to the mandatory death penalty in Singapore.

Judge Chao Hick Tin of a five-man panel said he was surprised that Chong-Aruldoss filed an originating summons, which is a civil application, when this is a criminal matter.

He noted that the case was to have concluded and the court had already said in its judgment in April that it was to come to an end.

Jabing, 31, from Ulu Baram, Sarawak, was found guilty of killing a Chinese construction worker with a tree branch back in 2008 during a robbery attempt.

He was scheduled to be executed on Nov 6 last year but received a stay the day before, after his lawyer filed a motion raising points of law about the way the case was handled.

The prosecution challenged the decision before the Court of Appeal, which again sentenced Jabing to death in a 3-2 majority decision earlier this year.

Jabing was sentenced to death in 2010 but in August 2013, following revisions to Singapore’s mandatory death penalty laws, the High Court sentenced him to life and 24 strokes of the cane instead.

On Oct 19 last year, Singapore president Tony Tan rejected a clemency petition before a stay of execution by the Court of Appeal.