Singapore on Wednesday hanged another citizen for trafficking cannabis, the second in three weeks, as it clung firmly to the death penalty despite growing calls for the city-state to halt drug-related executions.
The 37-year-old man was executed after his last-ditch bid to reopen his case was dismissed by the court Tuesday without a hearing, said activist Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Justice Collective, which advocates for abolishing the death penalty in Singapore.
The man, who was not named as his family has asked for privacy, had been imprisoned for seven years and convicted in 2019 for trafficking around 3.3 pounds of cannabis, she said. His bid to reopen his case was based on DNA evidence and fingerprints that tied him to a much smaller amount, which he admitted to possessing, but the court rejected it, she added. Under Singapore laws, trafficking more than 500 grams 1.1 pounds of cannabis may result in the death penalty.
SINGAPORE TO EXECUTE MAN WHO CONSPIRED TO SMUGGLE 2 POUNDS OF CANNABIS
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Human rights groups, British mogul Richard Branson and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug-related offenses as increasing evidence shows the death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent. But Singapore authorities insist that all prisoners get due process of law and that capital punishment remains “part of Singapore’s comprehensive harm prevention strategy which targets both drug demand and supply.”
Apart from Singapore, Amnesty International said Indonesia carried out 112 drug-related executions last year by firing squad after a hiatus since 2016. In contrast, neighboring Thailand has legalized cannabis while Malaysia has ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes.