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Singapore executes 2, including Indian-origin man, for drugs trafficking
Punjab-origin Kalwant Singh from Malaysia is the second Indian-origin man to be hanged - in the past three months - by Singapore for a drug-related offence
Singapore on Thursday morning executed two convicted drug traffickers, including Kalwant Singh, a 32-year-old Malaysian man of Punjabi origin who had been found guilty of bringing heroin into the city-state in 2016. The other man to be hanged was Singaporean Norasharee Gous, 48.
Kalwant Singh is the second Indian-origin Malaysian to be hanged by Singapore authorities in the past three months; in April Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, 34, was executed for drug trafficking. So far this year Singapore has hanged four people despite calls to abolish the death penalty.
"Singapore has once again executed people convicted of drug-related offenses in violation of international law, callously disregarding public outcry," Emerlynne Gill, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for research, was quoted by the Associated Press.
"The death penalty is never the solution and we oppose it unconditionally. There is no evidence that it acts as a unique deterrent to crime," Gill said in a statement.
READ | Singapore to hang 2nd Indian-origin man in 3 months, appeal fails
A Singapore court on Wednesday turned down a last-minute appeal from Kalwant Singh, whose lawyers had argued he had given information that helped arrest a key suspected drug trafficker.
The appeal was dismissed after the Central Narcotics Bureau said it did not use information he had provided. "We dismiss the application for a stay..." chief justice Sundaresh Menon said.
On Singh's behalf the Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network had also intervened, writing to the Singapore embassy, asking for the execution to be suspended. It was also pointed out Kalwant Singh had been forced to make drug deliveries to Singapore to repay a football gambling debt.
READ | Singapore urged to halt Punjab-origin drug trafficker's execution
In Singapore the death penalty is mandatory for those convicted of trafficking 15 grams or more of pure heroin. However, a judge can commute the sentence to life in prison if the offender acted only as a courier and cooperated with authorities. One of the co-accused in Kalwant Singh's case, news agency AFP said, had his sentence commuted after he cooperated with investigators.
In April Singapore executed Dharmalingam, who had been on death row for over a decade. He was convicted of trafficking about 43 grams of heroin.
Critics say that Singapore's death penalty has mostly snared low-level mules and done little to stop drug traffickers and organized syndicates. But Singapore's government defends it as necessary to protect its citizens.
With input from AP
