Johannes van Damme

Johannes van Damme (born June 1, 1935 in Middelburg , Netherlands , † September 23, 1994 in Singapore ) was a Dutch businessman who was executed in Singapore for drug offenses .

Van Damme had lived in Nigeria for a number of years . On entering Singapore, he was arrested on September 27, 1991 at the airport of the Asian city-state after 4.3 kg of heroin had been found in his luggage . The then 56-year-old Dutchman insisted on his innocence and saw the drugs as an act of revenge by his former Nigerian business partner, but the responsible court rejected this declaration. Van Damme was death by the strand sentenced prescribed in the legislation of Singapore on certain limits of amounts of drugs mandatory. The appeal hearing in November 1993 was unsuccessful.

After the death penalty was imposed, it became known through his lawyer that van Damme had already been sentenced to ten weeks imprisonment in 1991 in the Netherlands for smuggling ten kilograms of marijuana. It was also said that van Damme worked as a drug courier in Nigeria. The publication of a report by the Dutch Central Criminal Police Office (CRI) also confirmed the assumption that van Damme had cooperated with the authority and provided information about a blackmailer gang from Nigeria. In the Dutch Central Criminal Police Office it had not been ruled out that Van Damme was "deceived" by these people.

The Dutch government, Amnesty International and the European Parliament campaigned in vain for van Damme. Even an appeal for mercy from Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to the Singaporean President could not do anything. The sentence against Johannes van Damme was carried out in Changi Prison on the early morning of September 23, 1994 .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Van Damme previously convicted of drug smuggling . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 224 , September 26, 1994, pp. 11 .
↑ Appeals for grace did not help van Damme. Executed for drug trafficking. Warning from the Singapore Foreign Office . In: Bonner General-Anzeiger . September 24, 1994, p. 34 .

personal data
SURNAME	Damme, Johannes van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch businessman sentenced to death for drug trafficking
DATE OF BIRTH	June 1, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH	Middelburg
DATE OF DEATH	September 23, 1994
Place of death	Singapore

[faz1994-1] Van Damme previously convicted of drug smuggling . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 224 , September 26, 1994, pp. 11 .

[2] Appeals for grace did not help van Damme. Executed for drug trafficking. Warning from the Singapore Foreign Office . In: Bonner General-Anzeiger . September 24, 1994, p. 34 .