Johannes van Damme

Johannes van Damme (1 June 1935 – 23 September 1994) was a Dutch engineer and businessman executed in Singapore for drug trafficking. He was the first European to be executed in Singapore since its independence.

Johannes van Damme
Born(1935-06-01)1 June 1935
Middelburg, the Netherlands
Died23 September 1994(1994-09-23) (aged 59)
Changi Prison, Changi, Singapore
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
NationalityDutch
OccupationEngineer, businessman
Criminal statusExecuted
Criminal chargeDrug trafficking
PenaltyDeath penalty

Biography

Van Damme had lived in Nigeria for a while and was married to a Nigerian woman at the time of his arrest. He was arrested on 27 September 1991, at Singapore Changi Airport. In a secret compartment of his trunk, 4.32 kilograms (9.5 lb) of heroin was found. Van Damme claimed he had been framed by his Nigerian engineer partner, but this claim was rejected by the court. In November 1993, his appeal was rejected, and the sentence was upheld. A plea for clemency from the Dutch government was rejected by the President of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong. A letter from Queen Beatrix was sent to the President in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Van Damme from being executed.[1]

He was hanged at Changi Prison on the morning of Friday, 23 September 1994, between 6:30 am and 7:00 am.[2]

His case, along with that of Mat Repin, executed by hanging on 13 May 1994 at Changi prison for having smuggled 1 kg of cannabis from Malaysia,[3]) prompted science fiction author William Gibson to describe Singapore as Disneyland with the Death Penalty, the title of in his first major non-fiction piece which was first published by Wired magazine in its September/October 1993 issue (1.4).[4] The Singapore government banned Wired upon the publication of the issue, and the phrase "Disneyland with the death penalty" became a byword for bland authoritarianism that the city-state could not easily discard.

See also

References
  1. Last-ditch appeals fail to save drugs man from gallows, The Herald, 23 September 1994
  2. "Singapore Executes a Dutch Engineer Arrested on Drug Charges". The New York Times. 24 September 1994. Retrieved 4 July 2011.
  3. Amnesty International Report 1995 – Singapore,
  4. "Disneyland With the Death Penalty". Retrieved 6 December 2015.


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