Friday, November 18, 2016

Singapore will execute a black man for possessing marijuana

Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a University of Benin Industrial Chemistry graduate and football player

According to Human Rights Watch, "Singapore uses overly broad legal provisions on public order, morality, security, and racial and religious harmony to limit fundamental civil and political rights." Basically Singapore is a dictatorship (no democracy) which censors what people want to say, still has anti-gay laws (they recently banned a book because it was about gay penguins), and they brutally beat some of their prisoners with bamboo canes.

Singaporean justice: 

Now this country is going to execute a black man from Nigeria because he possessed marijuana. Please notice that Singapore claims he is a drug 'trafficker'; yet, their definition of a trafficker does NOT involve the selling of marijuana. If you possess more than a certain amount of the drug they call you a trafficker. 

This is outrageous but most of the world remains silent about the human rights abuses in Singapore because it is a business hub. In my opinion it is a backward country that I would never travel to under any circumstances.

Please pray that Chijioke Stephen Obioha does not suffer too greatly during his execution due to the lack of basic human decency in the nation of Singapore.

The article from Human Rights Watch

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/17/singapore-execute-nigerian-citizen

Vocabulary from the article:

to execute - this is when the state or government kills a person. Usually the person is killed because he murdered someone. In Singapore a black man can be killed for possessing marijuana.

to convict, convicted - to find someone guilty

a court - the place where a person is put on trial to determine whether he/she is guilty or innocent

trafficking - the transportation and selling of drugs

an appeal - if one court makes a decision, you can often appeal the decision, meaning you can ask a higher appeals court to overturn or change the initial decision

anti-death penalty - against the death penalty

sentencing - when a person who is found guilty is told how he will be punished

inherently cruel - cruel in and of itself

triggered - caused

a presumption - a guess, an assumption

mandatory - no choice, it has to be that way

amendments - changes

judges - the people in courts who either determine guilt or innocence or the sentence for a punishment

rigorous - strong, severe, strict

a drug mule - just a carrier for drugs and not a dealer or manufacturer

a clemency appeal - an appeal for mercy, for a lighter sentence than death

breached - broke, violated

the threshold of - a drug offense is not serious enough to cross the line into a crime that should be punished by death

to be deprived of life - to be denied one's life, to lose one's life

a moratorium - a break, a period of time in which something does not occur

abolishment - elimination

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