Clinton Makes Personal Plea in Caning Case
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WASHINGTON — President Clinton has made a new personal plea to Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong for clemency in the case of Michael Fay, an American youth who has been sentenced to be caned with a rattan rod for vandalism.
White House aides said Friday that Clinton wrote to the Singapore president Tuesday urging that Fay not be caned.
Fay was sentenced March 3 to six strokes of the cane, four months in jail and a fine of $2,000 for spray-painting cars and other offenses. Clinton previously called the sentence “extreme.”
The intensely painful punishment, a common one in Singapore for crimes ranging from rape to vandalism, is administered with a split rattan rod that leaves its victims bleeding and scarred for life.
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