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measures were being taken to ensure their safety.
Singapore
Releases during the period January 1973-May 1974 probably brought the total of prisoners still held without trial in Singapore down to 20, most of them detain- ed under the provisions of the Internal Security Act. In June 1974, however, the trend towards freeing political prisoners was reversed when more than 30 persons were detained under the Internal Security Act. The government alleged that they were all members of the Malayan National Liberation Front, an arm of the banned, underground Malayan Communist Party.
Amnesty International estimates that some 60 men and women are now held without trial in various detention centers and holding centers in Singapore, their periods of detention ranging from 12 years to a few months. While it is quite possible that some of those arrested in June 1974 might have been released after questioning, it is almost certain that there have been no releases among the 17 detainees who were adopted or whose cases were under investigation before June. Of particular concern are four men who have been detained since 1963, one of whom is held under a banishment order. Five other men and one woman are held under banishment orders. It is probable that they have all refused banishment to China or Malaysia and that they are detained awaiting deportation.
The Research Department estimates that some 40-50 people who were arrested in or after June 1974 are still in detention. The exact number is not known, but it is almost certainly higher than the figure of 30 generally quoted in June, since it is clear that arrests have continued since then.
These detainees, who probably include eight to 10 women, are of varied back- grounds. Among them is a well-known lawyer who has been active in the defence of political prisoners, an accountant, a journalist and two translators who were working for the Sin Chiew Jit Poh newspaper, businessmen, construction workers, students and civil servants. In March 1975, AI received detailed, though incom- plete, lists of persons believed to have been detained in June 1974 or in the months following and, at the time of writing (June 1975), most of these cases are being taken up, initially on an investigation basis.
In September 1974, the Director of Prisons described at a specially-called news conference how convicted criminals are caned in such a way that they are scarred for life. A maximum of 24 strokes may be ordered by the courts as punish- ment for certain drug offences and crimes of violence. Strapped naked over a trestle with padding to prevent accidental injury to the spine, the prisoner is beaten with a cane more than one meter long and more than one centimeter thick by specially-trained prison officers. Normally, after three strokes the skin at the point of contact has split open and the buttocks are covered in blood.
Prisoners are said to struggle violently at first, but at the end those who have received more than three strokes are in a state of shock. Many collapse, but the medical officer and his assistants are on hand to revive them and apply antiseptic to the wound.
The Director of Prisons said that the caning is intended to give criminals "a taste of the violence they had inflicted on their victims”. Al's Campaign for the Abolition of Torture wrote to Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore on 25
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