A Singaporean man is scheduled to be hanged next week for conspiring to smuggle 1kg of cannabis in the city-state’s first execution in six months, rights groups said.
Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, would be executed on Wednesday, according to a notice from the Singapore Prison Service that was received by his family and posted on social media by rights advocates.
Amnesty International condemned the decision, calling it “extremely cruel.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
“If carried out, this execution would be in violation of international law and in stubborn defiance of continued outcry over Singapore’s use of the death penalty,” an Amnesty spokesperson said.
In many parts of the world — including in Thailand — cannabis has been decriminalized, with authorities abandoning prison sentences, and rights groups have been mounting pressure on Singapore to abolish capital punishment.
The city-state has some of the world’s toughest laws against the use and sale of narcotics, saying that the death penalty remains an effective deterrent against trafficking.
Tangaraju was convicted in 2017 of “abetting by engaging in a conspiracy to traffic” 1.0179kg of cannabis, twice the minimum volume that merits the death sentence.
He was sentenced to death in 2018, and the Singaporean Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
Prosecutors said he owned two mobile phone numbers used as contacts.
“What is especially troubling is that Tangaraju ... never actually handled the drugs,” human rights advocate Kirsten Han (韓俐穎) said. “He was also questioned by the police without legal counsel, and said that he was denied a Tamil interpreter.”
Singaporean High Court Judge Hoo Sheau Peng (符曉平) said that anyone who abets the commission of a crime under the law shall also be guilty of that offense and liable to the same punishment.
Hoo said that “the charge against the accused had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Singapore resumed execution by hanging in March last year, after a hiatus of more than two years.
Eleven executions were carried out last year — all for drug offences.
Among those hanged was Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the UN and British billionaire Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.
The UN says that the death penalty has not proven to be an effective deterrent globally and is incompatible with international human rights law, which only permits capital punishment for the most serious crimes.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
RSS