Singapore, May 17. Singapore executed a prisoner convicted of trafficking 1.5 kilograms of marijuana on Wednesday, three weeks after another man was hanged in the city-state for attempted cannabis drug trafficking.
The execution of the prisoner, a 37-year-old Singaporean of Malaysian ethnicity, occurred today at the Changi Island Prison, according to what the NGO Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) told EFE, which states that “we can confirm that (the execution) has occurred.” .
In this case, the relatives of the prisoner have preferred not to reveal their identity or contact the press, after receiving notification of the execution last Wednesday, one week in advance, the usual protocol in the Asian city-State, which uses hanging for executions.
Although a lawyer requested the courts to reopen the case the day before, the request was dismissed by an island court. The defendant’s defense argued that the DNA and fingerprint evidence linked him to a cache of less than 1.5 kilograms, for which he was sentenced to death.
Singapore has one of the most draconian drug laws in the world, and provides for the death penalty for a minimum of 500 grams of marijuana trafficking.
The execution comes three weeks after the city-state carried out its first execution of the year, that of Tangaraju Suppiah, a Singaporean of Tamil origin, who was hanged on April 26.
His execution was described as “scandalous” by human rights organizations and the UN asked Singapore to stop it due to doubts about the guarantees of the judicial process, since the man’s lawyers and relatives affirmed that he had never touched or seen the drug that they accused him of. conspire to traffic
After a halt in executions for two years due to the covid-19 pandemic, Singapore broke records last year by hanging 11 prisoners in just a few months, including an intellectually disabled heroin trafficker whose sentence also drew criticism from the international community. EFE
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