Singapore has just executed a man sentenced to hang five years ago for his involvement in drug trafficking involving a kilogram of cannabis, twice the amount punishable by death in the city-state. A spokesperson for the Changi Prison Service broke the news. Despite appeals for clemency from the international community, and small advances in neighboring states in the area of capital punishment, Singapore is once again demonstrating its intransigence on the subject. It is also one of the most repressive countries in the world when it comes to narcotics.
From our regional correspondent in Southeast Asia, Juliette Pietraszewski
This execution is the 12th in Singapore since March 2022 after a two-year hiatus during the Covid-19. The appeals for clemency from the international community will therefore not have been sufficient to change the fate of Tangaraju Suppiah. The United Nations Human Rights Office had asked Singapore on Tuesday, April 25 to ” urgently reconsider »the execution of the person condemned to death.
Richard Branson, a member of the Global Commission on the Fight against Drugs, also called on Singapore to waive this death penalty, stressing that the prisoner had never handled the cannabis for which he had been sentenced. He also denounces flaws in the file.
In the coming days, Singapore may kill an innocent man. The case is particularly shocking, given the defendant was not anywhere near the drugs in question at the time of his arrest. Here’s more about Tangaraju Suppiah’s case: https://t.co/zMQ4owW4os pic.twitter.com/HMLe1WzF7m
—Richard Branson (@richardbranson) April 23, 2023
Chicken rice, nasi biryani, ice cream soda & milo-flavored sweets. These are the foods Tangaraju requested from Changi Prison authorities leading up to his scheduled execution on April 26. Here’s a heart-breaking read on his last days on death row: https://t.co/31F7FU5b1s pic.twitter.com/a88sow20IY
—Richard Branson (@richardbranson) April 25, 2023
On his side, Amnesty International describes the execution as illegal », and mentions many flaws such as the lack of access to a lawyer as soon as the convicted person is arrested. Capital punishment in South Asia is only abolished in Cambodia and the Philippines.
In Indonesia this month, the president granted clemency to a woman sentenced to death for drug trafficking. A few weeks ago, neighboring Malaysia had renounced the mandatory capital punishment, also called “automatic” for certain crimes. A definite step forward, according to human rights NGOs who hoped in particular to influence Singapore.
► Read also : Malaysia: the automatic death penalty for certain crimes repealed