On 14 Aug 2025, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam granted clemency to a 33-year-old drug trafficker, saving him from the gallows.
This is the first time in 27 years that Singapore’s Head of State has exercised this authority.
Presidential clemency is a constitutional power given to the Singapore President to reduce the sentence or pardon convicted persons.
Though successful cases are rare here — with only seven since 1978 — the mechanism still serves as a final ray of hope for those facing the death penalty.
Based on each convict’s circumstances, they may receive one of three results:
Here are the seven times a president in Singapore has granted clemency to death row inmates.
On 11 Feb 1976, 54-year-old Mohamad Kunjo s/o Ramalan was sentenced to death after murdering a lorry driver the year before.
He filed unsuccessful appeals against his sentence for two years before turning to clemency.
Kunjo’s solicitor reportedly prepared a three-page document, which pleaded for “mercy and compassion”.
Source: NewspaperSG
The petition also noted that both Kunjo and the deceased were highly intoxicated at the time of the assault.
It further stated that a pathologist agreed the victim could have died from acute alcohol poisoning.
Otherwise, the high alcohol content in the victim’s blood could have also accelerated his death.
In March 1978, then President of Singapore, Benjamin Sheares, granted clemency to Kunjo, commuting his sentence to life in prison.
While the Kunjo case in 1978 marked the first time a president in Singapore had granted clemency, the next would come only two years later.
In 1976, Singaporean Bobby Chung Hua Watt was found guilty of murdering his sister’s brother-in-law during a family dispute the year before.
Following a failed appeal, Chung was scheduled for the gallows on 18 Jan 1980.
However, three days before his execution, President Sheares granted the 26-year-old Chung clemency.
Source: Roots.sg
According to reports, the family was not aware that Chung, then a father of two young daughters aged three and five, had asked for pardon.
Nonetheless, they were “overjoyed” and “very grateful to the President and their lawyer”.
In his petition, Chung’s counsel noted that Chung’s sister approached him to help resolve her unhappy marriage.
He simply wanted to talk to his sister’s husband and his brothers — however, the meeting grew heated, and things got out of hand.
Chung subsequently served two-thirds of his life sentence in prison before being released in 1993 for good behaviour.
Siti Aminah binte Jaffar and her partner, Anwar Ali Khan, were sentenced to death for drug trafficking in August 1978.
The former was reportedly the first woman in Singapore to be handed a death penalty under the Misuse of Drugs Act (1973).
The couple was caught distributing 43.5 grams of heroin at Treetops Bar, Holiday Inn on 6 May 1977.
At the time of her crime, the 19-year-old Siti Aminah was a mother of a 2-year-old boy.
While Khan also appealed for presidential clemency in 1983, only Siti Aminah was successful in commuting her sentence to life imprisonment.
Source: NewspaperSG
According to reports, there were as many as four petitions submitted to the President — including one from her lawyer and another from Australia, which had more than 5,000 signatories.
On 16 Feb 1988, the eve of Lunar New Year, 31-year-old Tay Kim Teck was assaulted by six men in Lengkok Bahru, Singapore.
Tay sustained a stab wound to the chest and later succumbed to his injuries.
All six men were first charged with murder, but for five of them, the charges were later downgraded to rioting.
The murder charge was upheld against the sixth attacker, 22-year-old Koh Swee Beng.
In 1990, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.
Source: NewspaperSG
Although he lost his appeal against the death sentence in 1991, he was granted clemency by President Wee Kim Wee on 13 May 1992, just two days before his scheduled execution, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
In Sept 2005, he was released from prison for good behaviour after serving more than two-thirds of his life sentence.
Sim Ah Cheoh, a Singaporean woman convicted of drug trafficking in 1985, was sentenced to death in 1988 together with two accomplices.
In 1992, President Wee Kim Wee granted her clemency and commuted her sentence to life imprisonment, though her accomplices were executed that same year.
Source: NewspaperSG
While serving her sentence, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1993 and given less than a year to live.
She then appealed to President Ong Teng Cheong for release so she could spend her final days with her family.
Her petition was approved, and she was freed on 16 Feb 1995 before passing away on 30 March that year.
Mathavakannan Kalimuthu, a 19-year-old convicted of murder in 1996 along with two friends, was sentenced to death after killing a 25-year-old gangster during a fight.
After losing their appeals in 1997, all three petitioned President Ong Teng Cheong for clemency in 1998.
His petition was backed by five letters, including one from his mother and another from her employer, which was signed by Dr Ngiam Tong Tau, director of the Primary Production Department (PPD), along with five of the department’s section heads.
It was reported that Mathavakannan came from a disadvantaged background, where his 50-year-old father suffered from epilepsy and mental instability.
Meanwhile, his mother earned a monthly salary of S$1,100.
Source: NewspaperSG
Mathavakannan had dropped out of school to help support his family, including his 16-year-old younger sister.
Eventually, only Mathavakannan’s plea was granted, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, while the other two were denied clemency and subsequently executed.
He was eventually released in 2012 after serving around 16 years in prison.
26-year-old Tristan Tan Yi Rui was arrested on 27 Sept 2018 during a CNB operation in Tampines with passenger Muhammad Hanis.
A search of Tan’s car uncovered a bundle containing more than 337 grams of methamphetamine (‘Ice’).
The CNB reported that Tan’s Tampines residence was also searched, resulting in the seizure of roughly 16 grams of cannabis and a small quantity of ‘Ice’.
He was ultimately found guilty and sentenced to death for trafficking a controlled drug.
According to CNA, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reported that President Tharman Shanmugaratnam granted Tan’s pardon on 14 Aug 2025 based on the advice of the Singapore Cabinet.
Source: Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Facebook
The MHA stated that clemency in Tan’s case was granted because of the “specific facts and circumstances” surrounding it.
Another suspect arrested alongside him, who was also facing the death penalty, ultimately avoided execution.
As a result, the Cabinet advised the President to grant Tan clemency “to reduce the disparity in their respective outcomes.”
Presidential clemency has been described as a measure of mercy, and not as a process of determining guilt or innocence.
It considers factors such as the severity of the crime, the inmate’s conduct, serious health issues, old age, family hardship, and public interest.
In Singapore, the decision is not made lightly, and the complex process starts with filing a petition.
The President then asks for reports from the judges who tried the case.
After which, he or she forwards these reports to the Attorney General (AG) and instructs them to give their opinions to the Cabinet.
Following a review, the Cabinet will advise the President on whether clemency should be granted.
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Featured image adapted from Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Facebook and Tembusu Law.