Statement from Transformative Justice Collective
The Transformative Justice Collective feels great relief at the granting of clemency to Tristan Tan Yi Rui, a 33-year-old Singaporean who was sentenced to death in 2023. This good news is all the more remarkable because it is the first time clemency has been granted to a death row prisoner since 1998.
The South China Morning Post was the first to report that the Cabinet of Singapore has directed President Tharman Shanmugaratnam to grant clemency in this case. Tristan’s death sentence will now be commuted to life imprisonment.
In response to media enquiries, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the Cabinet decided to advise that President Tharman grant clemency so as to “reduce the disparity in… outcomes” between Tristan’s case and that of another individual arrested as part of the same operation and tried separately.
Beyond reading up on Tristan’s case, we are also trying to find out more about the details of this other individual’s case, so as to better understand what prompted the Cabinet’s decision. So far, the government has not identified who this other person is. We hope to be able to share further reflections at a later date.
After almost thirty years of rejected clemency appeals by three different Presidents—and more than 250 executions—we are encouraged to see a Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, exercise its power to show mercy to a young man on death row. We are greatly relieved that, today, there is one less person in Changi Prison that the state intends to kill.
Tristan will no longer have to fear facing the gallows, but there are more than 40 people still on death row, all of them convicted of drug offences.
The last execution—the tenth this year—took place just two days ago, on 13 August 2025. Now that they have broken the 27-year streak of clemency rejections, we hope that the Cabinet will continue to direct President Tharman to commute more death sentences. We also reiterate our call for an immediate moratorium on executions and the use of the death penalty.
We breathe a little easier tonight, knowing that a family has been spared from ever having to receive an execution notice and having a loved one’s life taken by the state. We continue to stand with all the families who still have to live in dread of facing such a horrific ordeal, and to fight for an end to capital punishment so that no one will ever have to go to the gallows again.
We call on all our fellow Singaporeans to sign our petition for a moratorium on the death penalty and urge our government to Stop The Killing.
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