A 37year old man has been to death on Friday during a hearing conducted on the video-conferencing platform Zoom in Singapore, OYOGist.com reported.
Punithan Genasan, was sentenced at the Singapore High Court for his role in a 2011 heroin deal. The city-state has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs.
Genasan’s death sentence is the first capital punishment to be handed down via video-conferencing.
Genasan’s lawyer Peter Fernando named Zoom as the site that was used, and said he had no issues hearing the judge. Fernando added that the judge was only handing down a sentence, and no arguments were being heard.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division has condemned the method of court hearing;
“Singapore’s use of the death penalty is inherently cruel and inhumane, and the use of remote technology like Zoom to sentence a man to death makes it even more so,”
Genasan’s lawyer has said that they may launch an appeal.
