Transformative Justice Collective issued Pofma
Activist group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) has been issued a correction order over statements made concerning the legal processes for prisoners awaiting capital punishment and the prosecution of drug trafficking charges in relation to Mohammad Azwan Bohari.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Oct 5 said it has instructed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma) Office to issue correction directions to TJC and one Kokila Annamalai; and for a targeted correction direction to be issued to TikTok Pte Ltd.
The false claims were made in a TJC article published on its website on Oct 2, and on the group’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X accounts the same day.
Kokila posted the claims on her Facebook page on Oct 2, and on X the next day.
MHA said they had falsely claimed that the Government schedules and stays executions arbitrarily and without regard for due legal process, and that the State does not bear the legal burden of proving a drug trafficking charge against the accused person. “An execution will only be scheduled when a prisoner has exhausted all rights of appeal and the clemency process in relation to his or her conviction and sentence,” said the ministry.
Azwan was convicted and sentenced to five years’ jail and five strokes of the cane for trafficking methamphetamine and diamorphine, and for consumption of methamphetamine and morphine, and possession of cannabis, cannabinol derivatives and diamorphine in 2009.
He was released from prison in October 2014.
MHA said he was arrested for drug trafficking again on Oct 17, 2015 and underwent trial in the High Court where he was accorded due legal process.
“After the trial, on Feb 11, 2019, Azwan was convicted and sentenced to death for possessing not less than 26.5g of diamorphine (i.e. pure heroin) for the purpose of trafficking.
“This is almost two times the amount that would attract the death penalty as stipulated in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1973, and would have been sufficient to feed the addiction of about 320 abusers for a week,” said MHA, which added that his appeal against his conviction and sentence was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on Oct 24, 2019.
Azwan’s applications for clemency were denied by the President on March 23, 2020 and on June 15, 2022.
MHA said since his appeal was dismissed in October 2019, Azwan has been a joint applicant with other death row prisoners in three legal proceedings, all of which were dismissed by the High Court or the Court of Appeal.
The ministry said that he had one pending court application, which did not seek a stay of execution, on April 12, 2024 when he was notified of his execution, which was scheduled for April 19.
After failing in earlier legal proceedings, he was notified that his execution was scheduled on Oct 4. On Oct 1, he filed another application for a stay of execution, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
“It is clear from the full facts provided above that it is false and misleading to suggest that executions are scheduled or stayed arbitrarily by the State.
“In fact, the postponement of the first scheduled execution occurred due to Azwan’s own act of filing a last-minute application to seek a stay of execution,” MHA said.
The ministry added that the prosecution always bears the legal burden of proving its case against an accused person beyond a reasonable doubt.
At Azwan’s trial, the prosecution called witnesses to prove the trafficking charge, and also presented his statements to officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), where he admitted that all the drugs were meant for sale.
MHA said that Azwan did not dispute that the drugs that were found in his possession belonged to him, but denied that they were all for trafficking.
The High Court found his claims at trial were contradicted by his own detailed admissions in his statements to officers from CNB, and was satisfied that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
MHA said the Government takes a serious view of the deliberate communication of falsehoods.
“TJC will be required to carry correction notices on its website and alongside its Facebook, Instagram and X posts, and create a new TikTok post containing a correction notice.
“Kokila will similarly be required to carry the correction notice on her Facebook and X posts. TikTok will also be required to communicate a correction notice to all end users in Singapore that had accessed the TikTok post,” said MHA.
TJC, a Singapore-based group urging abolition of the death penalty, was previously issued two correction orders in August 2024 over false claims on the treatment of death row prisoners.
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