Singapore executed two convicted African drug traffickers yesterday after their appeals for clemency were turned down and despite protests from the UN and rights activists.
Iwuchukwu Tochi, 21, of Nigeria, and Okeke Nelson Malachy, 35, whom officials said was stateless, were hanged at Changi prison in the early hours as protesters campaigning against the death penalty held a candlelight vigil outside.
Activists had been lobbying the government to halt Tochi's execution, but expressed shock that Malachy -- whom Amnesty International believes was South African -- was also hanged, as there had been no word on his case.
Amnesty says Singapore, which does not make public the number of people it executes, has one of the highest rates of capital punishment in the world in proportion to its population.
More than 420 people have been executed since 1991, most of them convicted for drug trafficking, it said.
The Central Narcotics Bureau confirmed the executions in a brief statement.
"The appeals of both Tochi and Malachy to the Court of Appeal and to the President [S.R. Nathan] for clemency have been turned down. Their sentences were carried out this morning at Changi Prison," it said.
"I'm surprised. From what I have heard ... Malachy was not supposed to hang. I was not expecting it," Chee Siok-chin, a campaigner against the death penalty, told reporters.
A Nigerian embassy spokeswoman said they had informed Tochi's family about the execution and were waiting for instruction on what to do with the body.
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