While the entire globe has come to a stand-still due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people have started working at home. Even the court proceedings are now being made online and a big example has been set by a court in Singapore. It was on May 15, 2020 when a judge in Singapore sentenced a 37 year old man to death through a hearing that was conducted through video conferencing on Zoom call. The Singapore High Court sentenced 37 year old Punithan Genesan to death for an offence that was related t heroin that was committed by him in 2011.
Singapore is known to be a city-state that has zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs. A spokesperson from the Singapore’s Supreme Court revealed that the announcement of the death sentence of Punithan marked the first capital punishment that was given out through a video-conferencing court hearing. The spokesperson added that an appeal might be launched.
After many countries have opted to hear cases remotely, Singapore has also started the trend and holds hearings remotely as the coronavirus pandemic continues to make it impossible the in-person hearings. Singapore has been facing a lockdown since early April, 2020 and is not expected to reopen at least till June 1, 2020. The city-state was earlier appreciated for the way it had handled the crisis but has now more cases than ever.
But some people consider death penalty as cruel and inhumane and delivering such a sentence through a video-conference call, makes it worse. However, Singapore is not the first country to issue a death sentence through a Zoom call. During the early days of May, 2020 a man in Nigeria was sentenced death penalty through a Zoom call for the murder of his boss’s mother. These days, Zoom is also being used by many educational institutions to reach the students remotely and deliver knowledge in the best way possible.
Photo Credits: Metro
