Singapore on Wednesday executed a person convicted of conspiring to visitors about two kilos of hashish, a punishment that human rights teams referred to as grossly extreme with different nations around the globe stress-free their stances on marijuana.
The person, Tangaraju Suppiah, a 46-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced in 2018 for coordinating with two different males to import the hashish in 2013. Though he by no means got here into contact with the drug, he was sentenced to loss of life by hanging after a decide dominated that he was linked to the opposite males by way of two cellphone numbers belonging to him.
Singapore’s narcotics legal guidelines are a number of the harshest on the planet and mandate the loss of life penalty for some drug trafficking offenses. Final 12 months, the nation executed 11 individuals, all for nonviolent drug offenses.
Singapore has continued to make use of executions for drug-related crimes though its neighbor and rival, Malaysia, not too long ago ended its necessary loss of life penalty for severe crimes, together with drug offenses.
Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, mentioned in a press release that the sentence was “outrageous and unacceptable” and “raises severe considerations that Singapore is launching a renewed spree to empty its loss of life row in a misguided deterrence effort that really reveals extra about Singapore’s barbarity than the rest.”
Kirsten Han, a loss of life penalty opponent, mentioned that Mr. Tangaraju’s execution confirmed that Singapore had prioritized “trying powerful on crime” over enacting more practical insurance policies to scale back hurt from medicine.
Activists mentioned the proof towards Mr. Tangaraju — the numbers on the telephones of the opposite two males — was largely circumstantial. Human rights organizations additionally raised considerations that Mr. Tangaraju didn’t have entry to a lawyer when he was first questioned by the authorities — Singaporean regulation doesn’t assure any such proper — and was denied entry to a Tamil interpreter when the police took his assertion.
Earlier than the execution, the United Nations’ high human rights official referred to as for the authorities to “urgently rethink” the sentence.
“We have now considerations round due course of and respect for truthful trial ensures,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. excessive commissioner for human rights, mentioned in a statement.
The Singaporean authorities dismissed these considerations, saying that Mr. Tangaraju had been afforded due course of. In a statement issued earlier than his execution, the nation’s Central Narcotics Bureau mentioned that he “had entry to authorized counsel all through the method.” It additionally mentioned {that a} decide had discovered his declare of being denied an interpreter to be “disingenuous,” as a result of he had not requested for an interpreter when giving subsequent statements to the authorities.
“Capital punishment is a part of Singapore’s complete hurt prevention technique, which targets each drug demand and provide,” the assertion mentioned.
The opposite two males related to the case each gave proof towards Mr. Tangaraju at his trial. Considered one of them, who was arrested with the hashish in query, pleaded responsible to trafficking 499.9 grams of the drug — slightly below the five hundred grams, or 1.1 kilos, that may draw the loss of life penalty — and was sentenced to 23 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane. The opposite acquired a discharge not amounting to acquittal.
Mr. Tangaraju’s household campaigned for clemency till his execution, issuing video appeals and writing letters to Singapore’s president, Halimah Yacob. On Tuesday, a Singaporean court docket rejected a last-minute enchantment from the household.
“His household mentioned they weren’t going to surrender on him till the final second,” mentioned Ms. Han, the anti-death-penalty activist, who spoke to Mr. Tangaraju’s household after the execution. “It was essential to them that they stored making an attempt to struggle for him.”
