Singapore on Wednesday hanged a prisoner convicted of conspiracy to smuggle one kilogram of hashish, government stated, ignoring global requires the city-nation to abolish capital punishment.
The execution befell no matter a plea via way of means of the United Nations Human Rights Office for Singapore to “urgently reconsider” the striking and calls via way of means of British rich person Richard Branson to halt it.
“Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, had his capital sentence performed nowadays at Changi Prison Complex,” a spokesman for the Singapore Prisons Service advised AFP.
Tangaraju changed into convicted in 2017 of “abetting via way of means of carrying out a conspiracy to traffic” 1,017.nine grams (35.nine ounces) of hashish, two times the minimal extent required for a demise sentence in Singapore.
He changed into sentenced to demise in 2018 and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
Branson, a member of the Geneva-primarily based totally Global Commission on Drug Policy, wrote Monday on his weblog that Tangaraju changed into “now no longer everywhere near” the medication on the time of his arrest and that Singapore can be approximately to position an harmless guy to demise.
Singapore`s Home Affairs Ministry answered Tuesday that Tangaraju’s guilt have been demonstrated past an affordable doubt.
The ministry stated cellular telecellsmartphone numbers that prosecutors stated belonged to him have been used to coordinate the shipping of the medication.
In many elements of the world — together with neighbouring Thailand — hashish has been decriminalised, with government leaving behind jail sentences, and rights companies were heaping stress on Singapore to abolish capital punishment.
The Asian economic hub has a number of the world’s hardest anti-narcotics legal guidelines and insists the demise penalty stays an powerful deterrent in opposition to trafficking.
But the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights disagrees.
“The demise penalty continues to be being utilized in a small wide variety of countries, in large part due to the parable that it deters crime,” the OHCHR stated in a declaration Tuesday.
Tangaraju’s own circle of relatives pleaded for clemency even as additionally pushing for a retrial.
Wednesday’s execution changed into the primary in six months and twelfth considering that ultimate 12 months withinside the city-nation.
Singapore resumed executions in March 2022 after a hiatus of greater than years.
Among the ones hanged changed into Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a international outcry, together with from the United Nations and Branson, due to the fact he changed into deemed to have a intellectual disability.
The United Nations says the demise penalty has now no longer demonstrated to be an powerful deterrent globally and is incompatible with global human rights law, which handiest allows capital punishment for the maximum critical crimes.