PART II
PUNISHMENT OF OFFENDERS AGAINST CONVENTIONS

Grave breaches of scheduled Conventions
3. —(1) Any person, whatever his citizenship or nationality, who, whether in or outside Singapore, commits, aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of any such grave breach of any scheduled Convention as is referred to in the following Articles respectively of those Conventions:

(a) Article 50 of the Convention set out in the First Schedule;

(b) Article 51 of the Convention set out in the Second Schedule;

(c) Article 130 of the Convention set out in the Third Schedule; or

(d) Article 147 of the Convention set out in the Fourth Schedule,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction —

(i)in the case of such a grave breach involving the wilful killing of a person protected by the Convention in question, to imprisonment for life;
(ii)in the case of any other such grave breach, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years.

(2) In the case of an offence under this section committed outside Singapore, a person may be proceeded against, charged, tried and punished therefor in any place in Singapore as if the offence had been committed in that place, and the offence shall, for all purposes incidental to or consequential on the trial or punishment thereof, be deemed to have been committed in that place.

(3) No Magistrate’s Court or District Court shall have jurisdiction to try any offence under this section, and proceedings for the offence shall not be instituted except by or on behalf of the Public Prosecutor.

(4) If in proceedings under this section in respect of a grave breach of any scheduled Convention any question arises under Article 2 of that Convention (which relates to the circumstances in which the Convention applies), that question shall be determined by the Minister and a certificate purporting to set out any such determination and to be signed by or on behalf of the Minister shall be received in evidence and be deemed to be so signed without further proof, unless the contrary is shown.

(5) The written law relating to the trial by a subordinate military court of persons who commit civil offences shall have effect for the purposes of the jurisdiction of subordinate military courts convened in Singapore as if this section had not been passed.

Article 8
War crimes
2. For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(i) Wilful killing;
(ii) Torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments;
(iii) Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health;
(iv) Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly;
(v) Compelling a prisoner of war or other protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power;
(vi) Wilfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial;
(vii) Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement;
(viii) Taking of hostages.