The President's Pleasure (TPP) in Singapore was a practice of indefinite imprisonment formerly applied to offenders who were convicted of capital offences (most notably murder and drug trafficking) but were below the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Such offenders were not sentenced to death in accordance with the death penalty laws in Singapore; they were instead indefinitely detained by order of the President of Singapore. This is similarly practised contemporarily for offenders who were of unsound mind when they committed their crimes, who are thus indefinitely detained at prisons or medical facilities (notably the Institute of Mental Health) in Singapore.
Procedure Underaged offenders The practice of The President's Pleasure was inherited from the British colonial rule of Singapore. Similar to the TPP in Singapore, Britain decreed that youths who commit capital crimes when aged below 18 would not be subject to capital punishment, but to indefinite detention at His Majesty's Pleasure. This practice in Britain for capital offences continued until Britain abolished the death penalty.
Under Section 213 of the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68, 1985 Ed.), it was ruled that people found guilty of a capital offence committed while under 18 years of age are spared the death penalty and detained indefinitely at the President's Pleasure. The section was repealed in 2010 following the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code of Singapore.
Extracted from a judgement titled Public Prosecutor v Anthony Ler Wee Teang and Another SGHC 361 (the original text of Section 213 of the CPC; repealed in 2010):
213. Sentence of death shall not be pronounced on or recorded against a person convicted of an offence if it appears to the court that at the time when the offence was committed he was under the age of 18 years but instead of that the court shall sentence him to be detained during the President's pleasure, and, if so sentenced, he shall be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the President directs, and while so detained shall be deemed to be in legal custody.
Under this TPP measure, the normal length of detention would be between 10 and 20 years. The detainees under this measure will be periodically reviewed by the President's Pleasure Board (appointed by the Minister for Home Affairs) every four years up to the tenth year, when they are annually reviewed and would be considered for release after serving at least 13 years. The President can direct their release, based on a recommendation, if they are found suitable for release. This is done so by granting the detainee clemency, as notably proven by the clemency appeal process by the underaged hired killer in the Anthony Ler case, who was detained under the TPP for killing Ler's wife under Ler's orders and manipulation.
During the period of their incarceration, the detainees would be in workshops within the institution or undergo vocational and educational programmes, which was determinant of their conduct and behaviour in prison. Such inmates would also be allowed access to family contact through regular visits.
Offenders of unsound mind Under this measure, which was carried out by the Singapore Prison Service, it was ruled that any offender, regardless of their age at the time of the commission of the offence, are to be acquitted of any crimes if they were certified to be of unsound mind at the time of the offences. In such cases, the Minister for Law is notified and may issue an order for their detention under the TPP. Such offenders will be placed in confinement at the Institute of Mental Health or at prisons. Unlike the practice for underaged offenders, this form of TPP did not have a minimum period of detention.
Every six months, the criminals detained under this provision will have their mental conditions reviewed by psychiatrists. If the psychiatric review finds that a detainee may be discharged without danger of injuring himself/herself or others, the Minister for Law may order his/her release. During their detention, the detainees may be released into the custody of a friend or relative who provides security and promises to care for them properly and prevent them from injuring themselves or others.
Extracted from a judgement titled Public Prosecutor v Tan Kok Meng SGHC 225 (the original text of Section 251 of the CPC):
Acquittal on ground of unsound mind 251. If an accused is acquitted on the ground that at the time at which he is alleged to have committed an offence he was by reason of unsoundness of mind incapable of knowing the nature of the act as constituting the offence or that it was wrong or contrary to law, the finding must state specifically whether he committed the act or not.
Original text of Section 252 of the CPC:
Safe custody of person acquitted 252 (1) Whenever the finding states that the accused committed the act alleged, the court before which the trial has been held shall, if that act would but for the incapacity found have constituted an offence, order that person to be kept in safe custody in such place and manner as the court thinks fit and shall report the case for the orders of the Minister. (2) The Minister may order that person to be confined in a psychiatric institution, prison or other suitable place of safe custody during the President’s pleasure.
Statistics Underaged offenders Reportedly, for the form of TPP addressing the underaged, from 1969 to 2001, the shortest time spent under TPP was seven years and the longest was 26 years, and ten of the detainees were granted clemency. It was further revealed in a December 2001 report, that there were 14 people serving detention under the TPP. In May 2008, a month after the latest conviction of an underaged offender, Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz, for murder, there were seven underaged offenders (including Nasir himself) serving time under the TPP. In January 2018, there were two inmates of the TPP remaining in prison. These inmates—Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz and the unnamed contract killer of Annie Leong—were the last two people serving time under the TPP since its abolition in 2010. At the same time, since 2012 until January 2018, there are three other inmates—consisting of Allan Ong and Kyaneth Soo and another unnamed detainee—who were released after serving between 13 and 19 years in jail and receiving clemency from the President of Singapore. There were no specific data regarding the number of inmates detained annually or their release dates (for most of the inmates).
From 1965 until 2008, there were reports of underaged offenders who were found guilty of murder and drug trafficking but given an indefinite detention period under the TPP due to them not reaching the age of 18, though two of these people—Mohammed Salleh Daim from 1965 and Sa'at Ismail from 1976—managed to escape the TPP detention due to successful appeals against their convictions. Most of the cases were murder cases. Most of the offenders were male, and most of these inmates were local. Racially, most of the offenders were Chinese, while among the rest, there were a handful of Malays and only one was of Indian descent.
Offenders of unsound mind As of 14 December 2017, there were three offenders being detained under this practice due to them being of unsound mind at the time of their offences. Two of them had committed murder while the third had committed the crime of voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon.
1960s P. Nadarajan (1965)
On the evening of 4 February 1965, 18-year-old Abdul Ghany Ahmad, who was sweeping the drains in Dorset Road, witnessed a known acquaintance—30-year-old P. Nadarajan—walking towards his two younger brothers—Abdul Wahid Ahmad, aged four, and Abdul Jamal Ahmad, aged four—who were playing on a concrete bridge nearby. The next moment, Ghany saw Nadarajan pick up a wooden pole and use it to hit Wahid on the head thrice, much to his horror and anger. Ghany rushed to his brother's aid and hit Nadarajan (who threw the pole into the drain) on the back with his broom, confronting the man and asking him why he attacked his brother. Nadarajan, however, did not give an answer and walked away nonchalantly. Three-year-old Wahid, who suffered a fractured skull, was subsequently rushed to Outram Hospital, where he died on the night itself.
Nadarajan was arrested a few days later, and on 22 February 1965, he was charged with murder. He was said to have provided the deceased boy and his brothers and sisters with sweets and had slept under the staircase at the front of Wahid's house. However, a psychiatrist found that Nadarajan was a psychopath and was thus of unsound mind when he killed Wahid. It was also found that for this illness, Nadarajan had been once hospitalised in a mental hospital on 23 October 1962, till his release on an unspecified date prior to the murder of Wahid.
On 28 February 1973, more than eight years after he murdered Wahid, 38-year-old Nadarajan pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt. He was ordered to be taken to Woodbridge Hospital, where he was detained indefinitely under TPP until he was fit for release.
Mohammed Salleh Daim (1965)
At a pasar malam in Trevose Crescent on 17 August 1965, 35-year-old Rafie Osman was found dead with a knife embedded in his chest. There was also another serious stab wound on his waist. It was said that the victim and his two companions had been attacked by a group of men armed with knives before he was found dead.
Seven men were arrested in suspicion of committing the murder, though it would ultimately be four of them charged with murder. The four men were: Ramlan Manijan, 19; Mohamed Adat, 29; Hisom Mahidi, 25; and Mohammed Salleh Daim, 17. In their trial a year later, both Mohamed and Hisom denied the murder charge while putting up their defence while the other two remained silent. At the end of the trial on 28 July 1966, a seven-men jury unanimously found three men (Mohamed, Salleh and Ramlan) guilty of murder while they found Hisom, by a 6–1 decision, guilty of murder. Salleh, who was aged below 18 at the time of the crime, was ordered to be detained indefinitely under TPP, while the other three were sentenced to death.
All four men appealed against their convictions. On 10 March 1967, the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of all the four accused persons, and set them free due to the evidence being tainted and the jury not properly directed by the trial judge on some reasons.
Lim Yau Hung (1966) On 11 October 1966, a 15-year-old student named Lim Yau Hung, nicknamed "Barber's Son", was accused of murdering a construction worker named Loo Tuck Fai on 26 June 1966 in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee. A member of "Gi Hup 24" gang, 18-year-old Loo was said to have been chased by a group led by Lim, who then attacked Loo and inflicted a total of 52 stab wounds on him. Loo died in hospital two hours after the attack. Lim, in his trial, denied that he took part in the killing even though he admitted that he was at the scene. He claimed that he followed suit with two other unnamed boys to give chase when they saw Loo but he stopped and remained at where he was while the others continued to chase Loo. Lim's accomplices, who were three or four boys, were never found despite the police's efforts to trace their identities or whereabouts, and the prosecution argued that Lim's actions were made in furtherance of the group's common intention to commit the crime.