KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — This Friday, Sarawakian Jumai Kho’s 31-year-old brother Jabing will be executed in Singapore for murder.
Jumai confirmed this with Malay Mail Online yesterday, saying she was finally informed of the execution date after spending a nightmarish wait the last two weeks for the dreaded notice.
Now, with only days left on the clock, Jumai is making her last desperate plea to the Malaysian and Singaporean governments to get her brother’s sentence commuted.
"If possible, I want to ask the Malaysia and Singapore governments to reduce the sentence,” Jumai told Malay Mail Online in a recent phone interview, as she broke down in tears.
The siblings from Miri have already lost their father who died from stroke one year after Jabing was arrested in Singapore in 2008 in a robbery turned murder case.
“Don't let him get the death penalty because I don't have any other brothers, he's the only one in the family. I don't know who else to ask for help.
“I hope that someone who is hearing about this case can help us as soon as possible because my brother does not have a lot of time," the 27-year-old woman added.
Jumai, a mother of two, was flown together with her mother to Singapore to be with Jabing by Singaporean anti-death penalty group We Believe in Second Chances, upon hearing that Singapore’s Court of Appeal had sentenced the 31-year-old Malaysian to death.
Jabing left Miri, Sarawak, in 2007 to look for a better-paying job as a labourer in Singapore so that he could help support his family. One year later, the Sarawakian of Iban and Chinese ethnicity was arrested together with a friend for robbing and assaulting a labourer from China.
Jabing was accused of beating Cao Ruyin, 40, with a piece of wood, with the China national later succumbing to injuries.
Split court decision
According to Kirsten Han, the co-founder of We Believe in Second Chances, Jabing was convicted and sentenced to death under Section 300c of the Singapore Penal Code, which at the time, in 2010, required the mandatory death penalty.
However, amendments to the mandatory death penalty came into force in 2013 and Jabing was deemed eligible to apply for resentencing. The High Court resentenced him to life imprisonment plus 24 strokes of the cane.
But the prosecution appealed and the Court of Appeal sentenced last January the Malaysian to death in a 3-2 decision.
Singapore President Tony Tan rejected Jabing’s appeal for clemency on October 19.
"It means he's come to the end of the road,” Han told Malay Mail Online. “The anti-death penalty activists in Singapore are trying to do their best to come up with ways to save him, but chances are slim”.
She said based on past cases, inmates on death row would usually be executed between 10 days and two weeks from the sentence date. Jabing’s appeal for clemency was rejected just about a fortnight ago on October 19.
"We just have to hope. That's why we hope the Malaysian government will speak up for Jabing. He has so little time left. It's about giving him a second chance," she said.
The activist pointed out that the Court of Appeal decision was not unanimous, which she said showed that some of the judges did not feel the death penalty was right.
Han was involved in campaigns that successfully got Malaysians Yong Vui Kong and Cheong Chun Yin clemency after the two men were sentenced to death in Singapore for drug trafficking.
Han said the Singapore government has already executed three inmates this year, expressing hopes that Jabing will not be the next one.
Jabing is loving
As for Jabing's 54-year-old mother, the case has taken a toll on her, according to Jumai.
"She can't sleep much since we got the news, wondering what his fate will be,” said Jumai.
"Of course a mother would want to be with their child. I believe every mother would understand the love a mother has for her son.
“I want to ask the Malaysian government to help me and my mother, to do one more appeal, so that my brother gets a lesser sentence. And I want to ask the Singapore government to help as well, so my brother doesn't get the death sentence. Give him a chance to live," she pleaded.
Jumai said her brother was loving towards others and cared a lot for her, who was his only sister, and their parents.
"Since young, he is not fierce or naughty at all. He is good. When we were growing up, he has never committed a crime, so we don't know why this happened to him," she said.
The homemaker added that her family was shocked when they got the call from a police officer saying that Jabing was arrested in a murder case.
Their father, who died from stroke a year after they got the news, never got the chance to see his son again since Jabing left home.
Jumai's 11-year-old son has also been asking her when his uncle will be home, while her two-year-old daughter has never met Jabing.
