Rallying to Prevent an Execution

How pure the amount of marijuana found in a German student’s Singapore apartment is could save the 22-year-old a death by hanging, authorities said on Wednesday.

Julia Bohl, a student at a German school in Singapore, was arrested by police last Wednesday in addition to her 21-year-old boyfriend and nine others on suspicion of running a drug ring. Authorities seized 687 grams of cannabis and 60 pills of ecstasy in addition to a number of designer drugs at the apartment shared by Bohl and her boyfriend, according to police.

Proof of drug dealing is punishable by death by hanging in Singapore, which has one of the highest execution rates in the world. Since news of the arrest reached Germany over the weekend, church leaders, politicians and human rights advocates have been rallying to the student’s side.

"It doesn’t matter what sort of a crime it is, the death sentence is inhumane," said Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Germany’s former justice minister.

German diplomats have been in constant contact with Singapore’s authorities since police arrested Bohl. A foreign ministry spokesman said the 22-year-old is in good condition in jail.

Lower amount could spare her

Bohl could be spared the gallows if tobacco or another substance was mixed in with the marijuana seized at her apartment. If laboratory tests conducted on Wednesday prove that the amount of pure marijuana found in the seizure was 500 grams or less, then Bohl would most likely only face a jail sentence.

Friends and teachers of Bohl’s at the German school told German newspapers that she was a very inconspicuous, clean and polite woman. Some ventured that her boyfriend, a native of Singapore who allegedly introduced her to the party scene, was more at fault. Bohl had been living in Singapore with her parents for a long time, according to reports.

Her parents, one an engineer, the other a teacher, now live in Germany but still support their daughter financially. Both flew to Singapore this week to be by her side.

Singapore’s death penalty

The death penalty is mandatory for murder, drug trafficking, certain firearms offenses and treason, according to Amnesty International. Of the 340 people executed in Singapore between 1991 and 2001, more than 200 of them were for drug dealing, according to reports.

Executions typically take place on Friday mornings at dawn and family members only hear about their loved one’s impending fate a week before hand, according to Amnesty International. There is almost no public debate about the use of the death penalty in the country, but the policy continues to makes waves outside of the country.

Bohl is the first foreigner to face execution since Johannes van Damme, a Dutch man caught with 4.6 kilograms of heroin in his suitcase as was leaving Singapore in 1991. Though a chorus of supporters, including Holland’s Queen Beatrix and the European Parliament, fought for mercy, Singapore went ahead with the execution following a three-year legal battle.